From SEND reform to Ofsted inspection, big changes affecting schools are due to be unveiled this term.
We will be scrutinising these and the impact on schools in detail, but another important issue we hope to see movement on is parental complaints.
We fully accept that schools, like any public service, should have complaints policies in place. While most issues can and should be dealt with informally, few would dispute the need for a formal process to be available.
Vexatious or baseless complaints
There is no doubt that children are best served when parents and schools work in close partnership, and it is important to be clear that, in the vast majority of cases, the relationship between parents and school remains extremely positive.
However, we are increasingly hearing from school leaders who have seen a significant rise not only in parental complaints in general, but also in clearly vexatious or baseless ones.
These are driving excessive workload for leaders and, in more extreme cases, significantly harming their mental health and wellbeing.
When we surveyed our members , 94 per cent reported an increase in complaints over the last three years. Nearly six in 10 (57 per cent) cited unmet additional needs as the reason.
Other recurring themes included attendance and holidays, other parents’ conduct, parking and transport issues, social media, and schools raising 51ºÚÁÏ concerns.
More than four in five leaders (83 per cent) had seen an increase in vexatious complaints. Schools are also seeing a marked increase in subject access requests, which generate hours of work.
One relatively new trend is the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI)Â to quickly produce long, detailed complaint letters that parents send to different agencies - again generating weeks of work for schools.
Division and fracture
It is hard to pinpoint a single reason for this rise in complaints.
Over the last decade, investment has failed to match growing demand from families for services including children’s social care, mental health services and support with special educational needs.
Being relatively accessible means schools can bear the brunt of parents’ frustrations in these areas and, while leaders and teachers are doing their very best, they do not always have the resources or access to the specialist services needed.
At the same time, the previous government, for political gain, used baseless public criticism of schools during the pandemic in an attempt to stoke division and fracture the social contract between the profession and parents.
This certainly did not help. People are increasingly fed an online diet encouraging fear and rage on social platforms, and this could be affecting their interactions with others, including school staff.
Help on the horizon?
Where does this leave schools? The good news is that the education secretary has acknowledged that the complaints system is not working for parents or schools.
Department for Education research earlier this summer sought the views of schools and parents with experience of the complaints process, and the department has held roundtables on the issue.
We hope this work will lead to tangible differences in complaints guidance very soon.
One big issue school leaders are facing is policies being ignored or bypassed, with complaints being escalated unnecessarily before schools have even had the chance to respond.
Another problem arises when complaints are made to multiple agencies at once, including everyone from the Department for Education to Ofsted, councils, MPs and the Teaching Regulation Agency.
Schools then have to deal with the same complaints repeatedly, again generating unnecessary workload and stress.
Important changes
Members previously agreed at NAHT’s annual conference that all complaints should have to go through a school’s complaints policy before being escalated.
They also backed a suggestion that complaints should be heard by one body at a time, and that they should not be anonymised unless relating to a serious 51ºÚÁÏ issue. This is because it can be harder for schools to investigate and resolve anonymous complaints. Greater transparency could deter misuse of the system.
We hope the government will consider all this in determining its new guidance. The status quo is clearly not working for either schools or parents. Â
Addressing this issue would free up schools to work amicably and quickly with parents to resolve genuine complaints - as well as to focus on their core mission of delivering a first-rate education.
James Bowen is assistant general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT
