Making a Formal Complaint to an Education Setting

The first thing you should do if you are unhappy about the help your child receives is to speak to a member of staff at the setting, for example:

• their teacher (or for a nursery their keyworker)
• the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO)
• the headteacher (or principal)

It is likely that you will need to arrange a meeting so you have time to discuss your concerns. 

If your complaint is about a specific incident, you will need to discuss how the incident was dealt with and how similar incidents will be dealt with in the future.

Ensure you have copies of any documentation relating to the event and that your child/young person has been given an opportunity to provide their version of events. 

The School's Behaviour policy and Anti-Bullying Policy will outline their responsibility to safeguard all the pupils in the school.  The Behaviour policy should acknowledge the school’s legal duties under the Equality Act 2010, in respect of safeguarding and in respect of pupils with special educational needs (SEN).

If you are not happy with how the school have deal with the incident, you can check the school website for their complaints procedure and write a letter either to the Head Teacher or the School Governors:-  (normally, the procedure is to write to the Head Teacher and give him/her an opportunity to resolve the complaint and then write to the Governors to carry out an investigation). 

In your letter, we advise you to consider the following:

• Clearly identify that you have followed the school’s complaints procedure and have spoken to right people to try to resolve the issue
• The failure by the school to comply with and follow the SEND Code of Practice (as opposed to SEN best practice).
• Evidence the key points as succinctly as possible (possibly as appendices)  stating clearly how the school has not met either their own policies or the Equality Act or the SEND Code of Practice and state what they should be doing.
• Keep the letter succinct, where possible taking any emotion out of it
• Be clear about all the issues you want resolved
• Keep the letter to headings outlining how you feel your child/young person has been treated
• Give a reasonable time by which you would like a response
• State what you want to happen as a result of the letter

If you are not happy with the outcome of making a complaint or feel that it has not been dealt with properly please read our sections on Resolving Disagreements  

There is guidance on how to complain about a school on the Department for Education website.   You must follow the schools complaints procedure before you  Contact the Department for Education

You can find out more about complaints procedures in the SEND Code of Practice 2014 sections 11.2 and 11.67 to 11.111.