Responding to the publication of the new Parent Guide to School Complaints, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said: 

“It is important to emphasise that in most cases the relationship between parents and school is extremely positive, and concerns are usually swiftly resolved. It is of course only right that parents should be able to raise concerns with schools if and when they arise, and that there is a clear a process for schools to respond to these.

“However, such processes must be used appropriately. Leaders have raised concerns with us about schools complaints policies being bypassed as long grievances, sometimes produced using AI, are fired off to multiple agencies, from councils to Ofsted. At the more extreme end we have also seen an increase in vexatious complaints, as well as unacceptable instances of abuse towards staff - something NAHT’s national No Excuse for Abuse campaign has highlighted.

“We welcome the focus of this guidance on solving problems in a positive manner, and particularly welcome the advice to parents to keep complaints away from social media, and to not to use AI to draft complaints. As the advice says, abusive and aggressive language will never be tolerated and could lead to parents being banned from school grounds in the most extreme cases.

“We hope this new guidance will help ensure issues can be resolved more swiftly when they do occur and that complaints are dealt with at the appropriate level. We look forward to working with the government and other organisations to reform the current complaints process so that it works better for all parties.”