More than half of schools have trained senior leaders to support complaints management in the last year amid an explosion in the number of parental grievances, a poll suggests.
Over four in 10 schools (43 per cent) have instructed legal advisers to support the management of such complaints, according to a snap poll carried out by law firm Browne Jacobson and shared with Tes.
The figures have emerged after a Tes investigation earlier this year revealed that an overwhelming majority of leaders had seen an increase in parent complaints over the past three years.
Tes also revealed that the Confederation of School Trusts has called for the Department for Education to make urgent changes to help schools cope with the rising wave of parental complaints, amid concerns over leader retention.
Increase in parental complaints
The findings from the Browne Jacobson survey - including responses from more than 200 school leaders across over 1,800 schools - showed that two-thirds of leaders (65 per cent) polled felt that complaints had increased.
The most frequently cited reason behind complaints was support for pupils with special educational needs (75 per cent) and general behaviour and discipline issues (74 per cent).
Meanwhile, seven in 10 (71 per cent) school leaders believe parents and carers are quicker to escalate concerns to the formal stage of the complaints process, with half in strong agreement this was the case.
A DfE spokesperson said the department is “reviewing the approach to processing parental complaints, ensuring the system is clearer for schools, parents and carers”.
The majority of respondents (90 per cent) said that complaints management was having a detrimental impact on staff wellbeing, with other issues cited including the quality of education being delivered (53 per cent) and staff retention (48 per cent).
Only 10 per cent said there was no negative impact arising from complaints.
One chief operations officer based in Yorkshire and the Humber who responded to the survey said their trust is “exploring the use of AI to de-escalate complaints” and that the trust is “developing a parental complaints portal that will aid resolution at the earliest possible point”.
Claire Pannell, director of governance and general counsel at the 16-academy Anthem Schools Trust, and an education lawyer with particular expertise in complaints management in the education sector, said Anthem understands it is the only multi-academy trust (MAT) in the country ”to have an in-house education lawyer”.
She said this “proves very useful for us in strategically and efficiently resolving complaints in line with legislation and guidance”.
Ms Pannell said that the trust also has a team of school complaints leads based in its schools who are “trained in complaints management”.
‘Wider dissatisfaction in society’
Hugh Greenway, chief executive of the 33-school primary MAT Elliot Foundation Academies Trust, said: “Like many trusts, we saw a significant increase in complaints in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years.
“This was probably symptomatic of a wider dissatisfaction in society as there was no reduction in overall parental satisfaction in the same period.”
Mr Greenway said there was “scope for a simplification of government agencies’ role in the process as duplicate and precipitate involvement often create additional work for schools”.
Matthew Shanks, CEO of 15-school trust Education South West, said that his trust trains senior leaders “all the time” in complaints management.
He thinks this is something that would be happening in “good trusts” to ensure staff are prepared.
Impact of soaring complaint numbers
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, shared the concerns of many sector leaders over the impact of the rise in complaints.
Mr Di’Iasio said that ”schools are under a great deal of pressure from an increasingly hostile culture of unreasonable and vexatious complaints, which are often fanned by the flames of social media”.
And he warned that tackling the increasing number of grievances was ”extremely time-consuming, stressful and costly”.
A Tes investigation earlier this year found that more than eight in 10 school leaders had seen an increase in vexatious complaints, creating an “unmanageable” drain on resources.
Asked by Browne Jacobson which behaviours school or trust leaders considered to be “vexatious”, personal attacks or aggressive behaviour towards staff were cited most frequently by 68 per cent of respondents.
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