Flintshire County Council

School Complaints

Parents

Making a complaint to your child's school

If you have a problem with a school you should be able to sort it out through an informal discussion with relevant staff at the school. If you can't resolve a problem informally, the school should have a formal complaints procedure that you can follow.

You should be able to arrange a meeting or a telephone conversation with the headteacher through the school office. If this isn’t practical, you may wish to make a written complaint.

If your complaint is not resolved, the next stage is to approach the governing body of the school. All state-funded schools are required to have a procedure to deal with any complaints relating to the school, or to any facilities or services that the school provides for the local community.

If you want to complain to the governing body, ask the school for a copy of its complaints procedure. All complaints to the governing body must be in writing and addressed to the Chair of Governors at the school address.

If the complaint is against the Chair of Governors, then address your complaint to the Vice Chair of Governors.

Only after following the complaints steps above, if you think your school's governing body has acted 'unreasonably' you can write to the Director of Lifelong Learning or telephone the Lifelong Learning Directorate Complaints Officer on 01352 704261 to log your complaint. This should be the last resort.

Please note Local Authorities do not have a statutory role in resolving complaints about schools – the statutory responsibility rests with the governing body.

The Welsh Government’s view is that the involvement of the Local Authority in a further stage would be for the purpose of reviewing the procedure used to reach a decision, not to review the decision itself or to act as an appeal mechanism.

• admission to or exclusion from school,
• statements of Special Educational Need,

If your complaint is related to any of the above issues, telephone the Lifelong Learning Directorate Complaints Officer on 01352 704261 to log your complaint.

For more information for this service submit an enquiry (will open an e-form)