Complaints about Hackney Council services
If your complaint is about a service the Council provides, including Hackney Education or Children’s Social Care, please refer to Hackney Council Feedback and Complaints or Children’s Social Care Complaints guidance.
Please note that complaints about services provided by schools must be raised with the school and are not able to be addressed through the Council complaints processes. For a complaint about a school, please refer to the information below.
Safeguarding concerns - if you are worried about the safety of a child
If you have any concerns about the safety of a child in Hackney, please contact Hackney Children and Families Services Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) at mash@hackney.gov.uk or call 020 8356 5500 between 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays. Outside of these hours, please contact the Emergency Duty Team on 020 8356 2710.
Complaints to schools regarding safeguarding of children can be raised with the headteacher or Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and reference the school safeguarding policy. The names of these members of staff are usually on the school website or you can ask the school reception.
Any complaint brought to the headteacher that suggests that a child has been at risk of:
- violence
- emotional abuse
- sexual interference
- neglect
may be referred to Hackney Social Services via MASH service and/or to the social services authority for the area the child lives. If social services decides to investigate, this may delay or replace the school investigation.
Other safeguarding matters that fall outside of the school’s complaints framework
Any allegations against a member of staff, and more broadly, volunteers, foster carers, or others in a position of trust, whether made about an incident in their personal or work life, need to be referred to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).
Raising concerns and making complaints about schools
A child’s parent, carer or any person who has been provided with a service at the school can raise a concern or make a complaint with the school.
The guidance on this page is a general overview of the process of raising a concern or complaint about a school. If you would like support to understand this information on this page, please refer to the Local Offer, contact Hackney Family Information Service (FIS) on 020 8820 7590 or via email at fis@hackney.gov.uk, or contact your school.
If you wish to raise a concern or make a complaint about a school, please ensure you ask the school or check its website for their complaints policy.
You can raise a concern or complaint with a member of school staff either:
- in person
- by telephone
- in writing (check with the school or on their website for the best contact details to use)
You will need to be clear about what your complaint or what your concerns are
- Is this having any effect on your child?
- If this relates to an incident; when and where did the incident happen; who else was involved; did anyone see it happen; who was this reported to?
- What do you think needs to happen to resolve your concern or complaint?
Expressing concerns, seeking clarification, providing feedback
It is important that parents, carers and the wider community communicate with schools.
If you are reporting something for the first time, consider first approaching the school through the usual channels to discuss your concerns before making a formal complaint. This can help the school listen, understand and resolve the issues quickly. You can approach the schools to express a concern, seek clarification or reassurance, or give feedback that can help the school consider the best way to respond to the needs of all children.
You can contact the school in this way to talk about issues such as the curriculum offer, behaviour policy, SEND provision, the facilities, or other services that the school provides.
Formal complaints
A formal complaint is the next step when concerns raised with the school were not resolved or, because the concern is serious enough to be addressed as a formal complaint from the start. This may happen to ensure a fair and supportive process is in place for both the complainant and the school.
Anyone can make a formal complaint about the education, wider services, and the facilities provided by the school. Complaints from parents or carers must be raised through the complaints procedures of your individual school. Hackney Council is not able to settle complaints about the services a school provides.
By law, schools must have a complaints policy and procedure and it will explain the steps taken to ensure your complaint can be considered and dealt with fairly.
The school complaints policy should be easily accessible on the school website, or you can request a hard copy or an accessible format from the school reception.
If a complaint is raised by a member of the community who is not a parent or carer of a child attending the school, in the case of academies, the school may follow a different process to resolve the complaint. In maintained schools, these will usually be managed by the school’s complaints procedure.
Stages of a school complaint policy and procedure
The stages of a school complaints policy must be clear and followed by all parties, unless there is good reason to divert to another process (for example if the concerns of the complaint should be dealt with under different statutory procedures, such as Safeguarding or further examples listed below).
Please ensure you read carefully and follow the complaints policy for your school. The complaints policy will provide details on how to submit your complaint to the school, usually in writing, and should suggest how you can be supported to do this.
Depending on the school’s policy, the process can follow several stages, depending on how serious the issue is and who it involves. Depending on the case, complaints can be referred to the headteacher or the school’s governing board and can include meetings, investigations, and can result in a written response, including outlining future actions when appropriate, and what to do if you are not satisfied with the outcome.
It is important to try to be very clear at each stage what your desired outcomes are, and, if escalating through stages, be clear on which aspects of the complaint remain unresolved and why you are dissatisfied.
Specific issues you may intend to raise in a complaint
- Concerns about how the school manages behaviour: Use the school complaints process to raise your concerns
- Suspension or exclusion: Please see section below on complaints that follow other statutory processes
- Safeguarding: Please see above section on ‘Safeguarding’.
- Support for a child with special educational needs: Speak with the school SEN Coordinator and refer to the information regarding education, health and care plan (EHC) processes below. The SEND Local Offer also provides advice and guidance.
When you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of a complaint to a school
If you have completed all stages of the school complaints policy and procedure and remain dissatisfied with the resolution or outcome of the complaint investigation, you may choose to raise your complaint with the Department for Education (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.
Please refer to the DfE guidance on how complain about a school.
Raising complaints with Ofsted
If you complained to the school and the problem has not been resolved, and only if your complaint is about things that affect the whole school, not individuals, you can complain about a state school to Ofsted.
This does not mean that Ofsted will then inspect the school. They may discuss the complaint with the school at their next inspection or refer your complaint to another organisation that can act on it. You will need to clarify that you have raised your concerns through the school’s complaints policy. In most cases, Ofsted will expect that you have done so.
Duties on schools and academies with regard to managing complaints
It is a legal requirement for all schools to have a complaints policy.
For maintained schools, the complaints policy is required by the Education Act 2002, and the school must consider complaints from anyone through their complaints policy. The Department for Education provides guidance for maintained schools.
For academy schools, the complaints policy must comply with standards detailed in the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, which also provides expectations on how complaints should be managed. The Department for Education provides best practice guidance for academies complaints procedures. As a public body, academies are also expected to handle complaints from people who are not parents, but they can use a different process to manage such complaints.
Role of the Council (the local authority) in complaints about schools
The responsibility to manage or resolve complaints about schools rests with those institutions, and not with the Local Authority.
Complaints about schools must be managed in the first instance by the schools, following their agreed internal complaints policies and procedures.
Stakeholders are encouraged to engage with the school’s complaints processes and exhaust all stages before raising them with external organisations. If all the steps in the school’s complaints procedure have been followed and the problem has not been resolved, you can raise it with the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted, as explained below.
Hackney Education offers support to all our school leaders and governors with regard to policy and practice in managing complaints. This support includes training, model policies, advice and guidance on best practice, and recommendations on policies and processes. The aim of this support is to ensure all voices, feedback and complaints are gathered and dealt with in a strong, fair, and correct way, helping the school improve.
Complaints that follow statutory processes outside of school or Council complaints
- Suspension or exclusion: If you disagree with your child’s suspension or permanent exclusion, you have the right to challenge the decision and how you do this must be set out in the letter your child’s school sends to you. In the case of a permanent exclusion, where the governing board does not decide that your child should be allowed to come back to school, you can ask for an independent review panel to review their decision. This is organised by your local authority or academy trust if the school is an academy. The letter from the governing board must tell you how to do this.
The Council’s general information about suspensions and exclusions and the processes involved can be found on our page about ‘Exclusions’. The DfE published guidance on suspensions and exclusions for schools and parents suspension and exclusions.
- Services provided by external companies using a school’s facilities: These are dealt with by the external provider according to their own complaints procedure. Make a request to them for their complaints policy.
- School admissions: Please contact the Admissions and Pupil Benefits team via email to admissions@hackney.gov.uk or by phone on 020 8820 7000.
- Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments and plans:
If your complaint is about a decision not to carry out an EHC needs assessment, you have a right to appeal. Mediation must be considered to reach an agreement with the local authority. If agreement can not be reached through mediation, you can raise your appeal with the Special Educational Needs (SEND) Tribunal. Information about this process and SEND Tribunal can be found on the SEND Local Offer.
If your complaint is about the content of an EHC Plan, we encourage you to discuss this with your EHC coordinator and your school. EHC plans must be reviewed at least once every 12 months (or every 6 months the child is under 5 years old). If you are unable to resolve your concerns informally, you can request an Annual Review of your child’s EHC Plan. Details of this process can be found on the SEND Local Offer. If you are not able to resolve your concerns through an Annual Review of your child’s EHC Plan, then you have the right to appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Tribunal.
- Data protection: If you are concerned about how an organisation, including schools, have used your personal information, please refer to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
- Exam malpractice or maladministration (SATs): Please refer to the standards and testing agency.
- Exam malpractice or maladministration (secondary school): Please refer to Ofqual and the awarding body.