Complain about a school

Printable version

1. Types of complaints

There are different ways to complain in England depending on whether your child:

Schools may not consider complaints about behaviour that happens outside the school’s hours or premises – check the school’s behaviour policy.

There are different ways to:

Other types of complaint

For some types of complaint you need to contact a different agency.

Complaint Who to contact
Child protection Local council
Criminal behaviour Police
Data protection Information Commissioner’s Office
Discrimination Equality Advisory and Support Service
Employment An employment tribunal
Exam malpractice or maladministration (SATs) Standards and testing agency
Exam malpractice or maladministration (secondary school) Ofqual and the awarding body

You can get free legal advice about schooling and education from Child Law Advice.

2. State schools

State schools include:

  • maintained schools

  • academies and free schools

Call 999 if a child is in immediate danger. Contact your local council or call your local police on 101 if you think a child is at risk.

Complain to the school

Contact the school to discuss the problem first - most problems can be solved this way.

You can make an informal complaint. The school will tell you when they will respond. After they review your complaint, you’ll be told the outcome.

If the problem is not resolved, follow the school’s complaints procedure to make a formal complaint.

​​Every school in England must have one. It’s usually available on the school’s website or from the school office and should tell you the kind of complaints the school deals with.

You may not be able to complain to academies or free schools if you do not have a child at the school.

Complain to DfE

You need to complete the school’s complaints procedure before you complain to DfE, unless one of the following applies:

  • a child is not getting an education
  • a child has been exposed to harm
  • the school is stopping you from following its complaints procedure

DfE will consider your complaint. They may use the information you provide to recommend improvements to school policies.

DfE cannot deal with complaints about:

  • fines for taking holidays in term time (sometimes known as a ‘fixed penalty notice’)

  • lack of compensation or apologies from the school

  • the behaviour of school staff - instead you can report teacher misconduct

If you have followed all the steps in the school’s complaints procedure and believe your complaint was not dealt with correctly, you can complain to DfE.

Complain to Ofsted

If you’ve complained to the school and the problem has not been resolved, you can complain to Ofsted. This does not mean that Ofsted will then inspect the school.

They will record your complaint, and may use the information you’ve provided to help them decide what areas to focus their next inspection on.

Ofsted considers complaints about things that affect the whole school rather than individuals.

Ofsted cannot:

  • resolve issues between you and the school

  • ask the school to respond directly to your complaint or take action on it

  • change the outcome of a complaint

  • change the school’s complaints process because of a complaint

You can complain about a state school to Ofsted.

3. Private schools

Contact your local council or call your local police on 101 if you think a child is at risk.

Call 999 if a child is in immediate danger.

Make a complaint

Follow the school’s complaints procedure - every school in England must have one. It should be published on the school’s website.

It should tell you what kind of complaints the school will deal with, such as bullying or bad behaviour.

You cannot complain directly to a private school if you do not have a child at the school.

Further complaints

The Department for Education (DfE) cannot investigate individual complaints about private schools. But it has certain powers as a regulator if the school is not meeting standards set by DfE for:

  • education
  • pupil welfare and health and safety
  • school premises
  • staff suitability
  • making information available to parents
  • spiritual, moral, social or cultural development of students

DfE will consider any reports of a major failure to meet the standards. It can arrange an emergency inspection to look at pupil welfare and health and safety, and make sure serious failings are dealt with.

DfE can ask the school inspectorates to take minor complaints into account when the school is next inspected.

You can complain to the DfE by filling in the school complaints form.

4. Special educational needs (SEN)

If you want to complain about a school’s SEN support, you should do it while your child is still registered at the school.

This includes complaints that the school has not provided the support required by your child’s education, health and care (EHC) plan.

There’s a different process if you disagree with a decision your local authority has made about an EHC plan.

Before making a complaint, talk to the school’s special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) to try and find a solution.

If the school does not have a SENCO, ask them who you should raise your concerns with.

If you’re not happy after talking to the school

You can make a formal complaint to the school.

​​Ask the school or check their website for how to make a formal complaint. They may tell you to raise the complaint with your local authority.

Check if the school has an ‘SEN Information Report’. This will usually outline how to complain to them about SEN provision.

If you do not want to make a formal complaint, your local authority may offer a ‘disagreement resolution service’ that can help resolve your disagreement about SEN support. Contact your local authority or check their website for their ‘SEND local offer’ for details.

If the school or local authority cannot solve the problem

You can complain to the Department for Education (DfE).

They can ask the school to take action if they find your complaint was not handled correctly.

DfE cannot normally change the decision, but they can look into how it was made and ask the school to take action where appropriate.

5. Disability discrimination

Follow the school’s complaints process if you believe a school has discriminated against someone because of their disability.

If this does not solve the problem, or you do not want to complain to the school first, you may be able to complain to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) tribunal.

Who can complain to the SEND tribunal

You can complain to the tribunal if you’re:

  • someone with parental responsibility for a young person, or their foster parent or carer
  • a young person over school leaving age but under 18

You can complain to the tribunal about:

  • a school, nursery or pupil referral unit maintained by a local authority
  • an independent school
  • a free school, including an academy

You cannot complain to the tribunal about:

  • a private nursery, unless it’s part of a school
  • a further education college
  • an organisation using a school’s premises

Complain to the SEND tribunal

You must send your complaint to the tribunal within 6 months of the discrimination taking place. If you send your complaint more than 6 months later, you’ll be asked to explain why.

Your complaint can include events which happened more than 6 months ago, as long as these directly relate to events that have taken place in the last 6 months. The tribunal must be able to treat events as a single complaint about one ongoing issue.

For example, if your child was permanently excluded from school after a series of fixed-term exclusions which you believe were all because of the child’s disability, the tribunal could treat them as a single complaint.

It’s free to make a complaint to the SEND tribunal.

Download and fill in:

The address to send it to is on the form.

You can include details of up to 5 witnesses who you’d like to bring to the hearing on your form.

Contact the tribunal if you have any questions about completing the form. They cannot give you legal advice.

Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal

sendistqueries@justice.gov.uk
Telephone: 0300 303 5857
Fax: 0870 739 4017
Find out about call charges

Help you can get

Check if you can get legal aid.

You can also get free help and advice from:

Information, Advice and Support Services (IASS) Network
iassn@ncb.org.uk

After you make your complaint

Once the tribunal has registered your complaint, it will ask you and the school you’re complaining about if you agree to the complaint being decided without a hearing.

If you both agree, the tribunal will make a decision about your complaint.

If you do not agree, the tribunal will send you a letter telling you if they’ll hold a hearing, and when and where it’ll take place.

You can complain to the Department for Education (DfE) about a school if the SEND tribunal will not handle your case.

Attending the hearing

You may be able to attend the hearing by video link. If you do need to attend in person, the hearing will be close to your home.

Change or withdraw your complaint before the hearing

Download and fill in:

  • form SEND7 to change your complaint, for example to ask for a different hearing date or add more witnesses
  • form SEND8 to withdraw your complaint

What happens at the hearing

The hearing will usually be attended by:

  • a judge and 1 or 2 other tribunal members
  • a clerk
  • someone representing the school or local authority you’re complaining about
  • witnesses

You do not have to go to the hearing, but if you do you can ask questions and present the case yourself. If you’re complaining as a young person, your parents can come to the hearing.

Fill in the attendance form if you want to bring:

  • someone to represent you
  • someone to support you
  • witnesses

You can ask to have an interpreter at the hearing. They’ll translate what happens but they cannot represent you or give you legal advice.

You might be asked questions by:

  • your legal representative (if you have one)
  • the local authority’s representative
  • the tribunal

You’ll usually get a letter or email with the tribunal’s decision within 10 working days of the hearing.

Claiming expenses

You might be able to claim travel expenses for going to the hearing.

Your witnesses might also be able to claim expenses for travel and loss of earnings.

If you bring a friend or relative to the hearing, you might also be able to claim for their travel costs.

If your complaint is successful

The school or local authority must act on the tribunal’s decision within a set amount of time.

You can complain to the Local Government Ombudsman if a local authority does not keep to the decision.

Local Government Ombudsman

Telephone: 0300 061 0614
Find out about call charges

PO Box 4771
Coventry
CV4 0EH

If your complaint is not successful

The letter or email giving the tribunal’s decision will tell you how to apply to:

  • get the decision ‘set aside’ (cancelled) if you think there’s been a mistake in the process
  • ask the tribunal to ‘review’ the decision, for example if your circumstances have changed since you got the decision or the decision contains a mistake

You can also ask for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals) Chamber if you think the SEND tribunal has made a mistake and acted against the law.

You must ask for permission to appeal within 28 days of the date on the tribunal’s decision letter.