Submitting a schools complaint

If you are not happy with the outcome of a complaint you raised with your school, you may be able to get help from the Ombudsman.

We aim to consider all complaints as soon as we can but know some complaints are more urgent than others. Where the complaint is urgent because, for example, a child is no longer attending school, we may be able to deal with your complaint straight away.

If you have sent your complaint to us, but we think that you should have complained to your school first, we will refer your complaint back to the school with a request that it considers it in accordance with its own procedure. If, at the end of the process, you remain dissatisfied, or the school fails to deal with your complaint in a timely fashion, we will consider it.

What to do next

You should normally make your complaint to us within 12 months of realising the school has done something wrong. If it is longer, then tell us why you could not complain sooner and we will consider whether to take your case on or not.

To submit a complaint, you can:

• complete an online complaint form
• call the LGO Advice Team on 0300 061 0614 or 0845 602 1983 (8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday) Calls to 03 numbers will cost no more than calls to national geographic numbers (starting 01or 02) from both mobiles and landlines, and will be included as part of any inclusive call minutes or discount schemes in the same way as geographic calls. Please note that calls may be recorded for training and quality purposes.

It is usually best to call our Advice Team before you make a complaint to us. Our adviser will be able to give you advice about:

• whether your complaint falls within our jurisdiction
• whether there are any steps you need to take before we can look at your complaint - such as complaining to school - and where you might get help to do this
• whether we will be able to achieve the result you want, if we find the school has been at fault
• information it would help us to have from you
• what special help we can provide, if you need it to make your complaint to us
• our process and how long it may take
• other bodies that might be able to help you if your complaint is not something we can investigate.
• our adviser will also be able to answer any other questions you have about our service.

Date Updated: 10/08/11