A recent survey reported by Tes found two-thirds of schools have reported a rise in parent complaints during the 2023/24 academic year. It’s something many are hoping the next government will tackle to improve the wellbeing of school staff.
As a result, many schools are reviewing their policies for handling complaints to bring more clarity to how they will respond to certain issues and behaviours.
At our law firm, we recently ran a webinar on this issue where several key questions came to light that schools may find helpful to have clarity on as they tackle this difficult area.
Can we have an ‘unreasonable complaints’ annex in our complaints policy?
Yes, your complaints policy - which should set out how you will respond to complaints, including communication methods and timelines - should have a section addressing repetitious and vexatious complaints, and complaints pursued in an otherwise unreasonable manner.
Examples of the latter include:
- Insistence on the complaint being dealt with in ways that are incompatible with the complaints procedure or with good practice; or
- Raising large numbers of detailed but unimportant questions, and insisting they are fully answered, often immediately and to their own timescales.
A warning is the usual first step. If the parent continues to pursue their complaint in an unreasonable manner, there may be grounds to not consider the complaint further.
Can we disregard complaints from parents who make completely false allegations?
No. The Department for Education makes it clear anyone has the right to raise a new complaint at any time and failure to respond could result in a judgement that the school has failed to act reasonably.
This means schools need to separate the ‘complaint’, which may or may not have merit, from the ‘complainant’, whose behaviour or correspondence may be difficult, unpleasant or offensive.
All complaints or allegations should be investigated thoroughly, and a conclusion reached as to whether the complaint has any merit. A written response should be sent to the parent to confirm the outcome of the investigation and the school’s position on this matter.
In relation to parent behaviour, it is important to set clear boundaries with parents about what behaviour you deem to be unacceptable, whether in pursuance of a complaint or otherwise. Examples of unreasonable behaviour include:
- Verbal or written threats of violence or harm.
- Discriminatory conduct or use of discriminatory language.
- Frequent, unwarranted and/or unnecessary correspondence that is hindering the proper running of the school.
Expectations can be set out in a parent code of conduct, which should be available to parents via the school or trust website.
Do parents have a right to record meetings?
No. It is for the school or trust to determine if they wish to consent to meetings with staff members being recorded. It is common practice to prohibit such recordings to protect privacy and confidentiality, and ensure sensitive information is not shared more widely without consent.
If you do allow this, though, it is important to have a procedure in place for agreeing to recordings of meetings in appropriate circumstances, which will ensure consent is granted by all parties involved.
If a parent says they will record a meeting, can we cancel it?
Yes. It should be made clear to parents the school does not consent to parents making audio or video recordings of any member of staff or individual connected to the school - including during in-person or virtual meetings, or telephone conversations - unless explicitly agreed in writing.
If it becomes apparent a parent is recording a discussion, the staff member can inform the parent they do not consent to the recording and ask them to stop.
If this request is refused, they can terminate the discussion and make a detailed note of the conversation as soon as possible.
Can you send a warning letter to an ex-parent writing about the school on social media?
Yes, it is possible to send a warning letter to an ex-parent (or, indeed, any individual) who is writing inaccurate or inappropriate information on social media.
In practice, this generally only has an impact where the individual made the comments in a ‘private’ social media page or group chat and did not expect the school to see the comments.
Where the individual concerned publishes the post as a ‘public’ message, then writing directly is unlikely to result in compliance with the request.
In such cases, the parent may actually be encouraged by the school’s engagement to publish further posts, and any letter sent to the parent may be published.
What if they name staff members?
Scenarios may arise where social media statements about a staff member could be considered defamatory.
An action for defamation is a personal action, which means only the person who believes they have been defamed may bring proceedings.
A defamation claim can’t be assigned or brought on someone else’s behalf (save for a minor), although a staff member’s trade union may in practice support such action.
Victoria Hatton is senior associate in the education team at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson
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