Proposed changes to the parental complaints system “stop short” of providing the powers schools need to enforce them, legal experts have warned.
The government has announced it will create a “digital, accessible solution” for handling complaints, with new expectations aimed at improving relations between parents and leaders.
More than five-million complaints were made by parents in the past year, according to ParentKind. A Schools Week investigation found headteachers “weren’t sleeping” due to stress over complaints, with many generated by artificial intelligence.
The schools white paper said heads and parents have been “left to navigate this largely on their own foot for far too long”, and that it will “improve the consistency and impact of the engagement” between them.
It said the new digital platform will improve data collection and stop complaints being escalated through multiple avenues at the same time, such as Ofsted, an individual school and the Department for Education.
“Minimum expectations” for home-to-school partnerships will be outlined for schools, along with a best-practice guide.
The expectations will govern effective and timely communication, establishing high expectations of families, supporting transitions between stages, supporting learning at home and regular family participation in school life.
‘Advisory rather than compulsory’
While legal experts have welcomed the changes announced, some have warned that they “stop short” on the powers needed to make sure parents follow the rules.
Claire Archibald, legal director at Browne Jacobson, welcomed the proposal to stop complaints through multiple avenues.
But she said she was concerned the minimum expectations framework would “remain advisory rather than compulsory” and did not have enough “legislative teeth”.
“Our concern remains that the framework stops short of giving schools any real mechanism to enforce that balance in practice.
“Parents have rights but they also have responsibilities, and although the white paper nods more clearly towards those, the question of what happens when those expectations are not met by families is not yet answered.”
Digital platform plans ‘unclear’
Senior associate at Winckworth Sherwood Adam Jackson said it “remains unclear how the platform will address challenges” within the existing system.
“For it to be effective, schools will need a legitimate basis to require parents to submit concerns exclusively through the digital system,” he said.
Laura Berman, partner at Stone King LLP, said the introduction of new individual support plans, which schools will have a legal duty to produce for SEND pupils, could make the complaints process “escalate significantly”.
“If there’s no other route to challenge these individual support plans, it’s all going to come down to that complaint process. And that is going to be really, really difficult.”
However, experts have welcomed many parts of the proposals.
“There is a real sense that the white paper is attempting to reframe this as a two-way partnership, empowering families to understand that they are active participants in their child’s education and that engagement is something they are responsible for, not merely entitled to,” Archibald said.
Schools Week has asked the DfE when the digital platform will be introduced and how the minimum expectations will be enforced.
