Dealing with the local authority

Parents, carers or legal guardians can also take their complaint to their school's Local Authority or Director of Education. They will need to look at your complaint, the details of all the actions set out by each outcome of the aforementioned stages, the school, Head Teacher and Governing body have recommended, then base any decisions made and present them in the form of recommendations and report these back, in full, to all parties, normally within 20 days (depends on individual Local Authorities).

If you have exhausted all possibilities and official avenues of complaint, and still remain unhappy with decisions or recommendations made, then you may seek further representation by approaching the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (details found at dcsf.gov.uk), schools inspection body Ofsted  (details found at ofsted.gov.uk) or the Local Government Ombudsmen (details found at lgo.org.uk) .

Some tips!

It’s really important to remember the following:

• If you are unsure of the initial approach to take, try to be calm and non-confrontational with the school in question. This may help keep things constructive and keep the school on your side
• If you are unhappy about the way you are being treated or communicated with, keep a record of each time this has happened
• If you feel you are being blocked for any manner of reasons, be calm, but persist in reaching who it is you need to speak to
• If you talk to anybody on the telephone, always make a note of the time, date and get their name
• When communicating in writing, keep copies of everything
• If necessary, make sure you copy the appropriate parties into any correspondences
• You are the parent, it is your son or daughter that you are worried about and if you are not satisfied or in your opinion feel you have been treated unfairly, don’t stop. Keep going!

What is my legal position?