School Complaints
From 1 September 2003 Governing Bodies (GBs) of all maintained schools and maintained nursery schools in England are required, under Section 29 of the Education Act 2002, summarised in Annex A, to have in place a procedure to deal with complaints relating to the school and to any community facilities or services that the school provides. The law also requires the procedure to be publicised.
The majority of schools already have a complaints procedure in place, generally based on Local Education Authority (LEA) or Diocesan Board models. LEAs are already required to set up a procedure for dealing with certain types of complaints, for example, complaints about the curriculum or collective worship in a school. The GB’s complaints procedure does not replace the arrangements made for those types of complaint. In addition, there are certain complaints which fall outside the remit of the GB’s complaints procedure, for example, staff grievances or disciplinary procedures. It is recommended that the governing body ensures that any third party providers offering community facilities or services through the school premises, or using school facilities [even if it’s hiring it out for a wedding reception!], have their own complaints procedure in place.