Making a complaint about your child's education

If you have a concern or complaint about your child’s education it’s important to know who to speak to about it.

Who you complain to and how complaints are handled depends on what you’re complaining about. For example, complaints about additional learning needs (ALN) are handled differently from complaints about how the school is run.

Complaining about your child’s school

Before making a complaint, read up on policies and guidance that could help you.

• All state-funded schools should have a complaints policy, which should be available on their website. Ask to see this policy so you know what to expect and how your complaint should be handled.
• Ask if the school has specific policies relating to the issue you’re complaining about, such as an equal opportunities policy or anti-bullying policy.
• The Welsh Government has Additional learning needs guidance that schools must follow to comply with the law.

Making the complaint

To make a complaint about your child’s school, follow these steps:

1. If possible, raise your concern or complaint informally with the people involved. For example, if you’re worried about your child’s progress, talk to their class teacher.
2. If the person you’ve spoken to can’t help, or you aren’t satisfied with their response, you could make a formal complaint to the headteacher.
3. If you aren’t happy with the school’s response to your complaint, the next step is to raise it with the school governing body. The complaints policy or any letter you receive in response to your complaint should explain how to do this and when you can expect a response.
4. If your complaint cannot be resolved by the school, the school may refer you to the local authority and ask them to consider your complaint. Local authorities will normally only hear complaints about how the complaint was handled.

Read the Welsh government's School complaints procedures guidance.

Tips for making a complaint 

• If possible, always raise any concerns you have informally before making a formal complaint.
• When making a formal complaint, make it clear that you’re making a formal complaint and ask them to treat your complaint in line with their complaints policy.
• Think about what you want your complaint to achieve. Do you want an apology? For the other person to admit they made a mistake? To make sure bad practice doesn’t happen again? Make sure you explain what you want to happen when you make the complaint.
• Be clear and concise with the important facts. Some people reading the complaint may not be familiar with the whole background.
•  Try to keep all correspondence in writing and keep copies of any letters, emails, meeting notes or reports to do with the complaint. If you speak with someone on the phone, keep a record of what was said and the name of the person you spoke with. These records may be useful later if you need to take your complaint further.
• Read up on your rights in education. Sometimes, just showing that you’re aware of your rights can make it more likely that your complaint will be taken seriously.
• Try to stay calm and polite. It will be easier for other people to dismiss your concerns if they feel that you’re being aggressive or unreasonable.

Individual Development Plan (IDP)

Families have the right to challenge decisions concerning their child’s IDP at every stage. This includes decisions around whether or not to provide, continue or change an IDP, as well as the support detailed in the IDP.

If you’re unhappy with any aspect of your child’s IDP, first talk to your ALNCO or EYALNLO about your concerns. You should be aware that you need to raise your concerns about an IDP within set timeframes.

Dispute Resolution

If this doesn’t help to resolve your concerns, you can ask to use Dispute Resolution if you like. Dispute Resolution is a service run by every council which seeks to provide space to talk through IDP disagreements. You also have the right to take an appeal to the Education Tribunal.

You can get information and advice about making a complaint about your child's education and ALN in Wales from SNAP Cymru.

Help with your complaint

For advice on making a complaint, contact our Helpline. If you need specialist advice, they will refer you to one of our Advice and Guidance Officers who can give one-to-one advice and guidance.

The Children's Commissioner for Wales have a list of all the public bodies you may need to contact when making a complaint.