{"id":6516,"date":"2022-05-04T16:33:30","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T15:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.devon.gov.uk\/supportforschools\/?page_id=6516"},"modified":"2025-01-14T11:58:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T11:58:47","slug":"complaints-guidance-and-toolkit","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/school-effectiveness\/governance\/gov-guidance-policy-and-tools\/complaints-guidance-and-toolkit\/","title":{"rendered":"Complaints guidance and toolkit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Toolkit and complaints procedure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Complaints Guidance and Toolkit for schools enables governors, trustees, senior leaders and clerks to ensure that they can deal with complaints and concerns with confidence.<br>The toolkit is in twelve parts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Model complaints policy for maintained schools and standalone academies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Model complaints policy for multi-academy trusts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Model policy on managing unreasonable behaviour<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Guidance for schools and boards on managing complaints<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Guidance for schools and boards on managing unreasonable behaviour<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Model letters<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Model complaints submission form<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Complaint investigation officer &#8211; terms of reference<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Complaint investigation report template<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Complaints against board members &#8211; procedure<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Guidance for the appeal panel and clerk<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Two minute guide for leaders regarding complaints made to Ofsted about your school.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>All the above documents can be found on the Devon Education Services subscriber site: <a href=\"https:\/\/devoneducationservices.co.uk\/microsites\/governance-consultancy\/complaints-resources\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Complaints Resources | DES<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>It is essential that schools do not just adopt the model policies as they are, but consider each section carefully to add their own context and details.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mediation service for schools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Schools are encouraged to consider mediation at any stage of a complaints process. Further information can be obtained by emailing <a href=\"mailto:educationmediation@devon.gov.uk\">educationmediation@devon.gov.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Complaints against governors or trustees<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This guidance jointly produced by the Exeter Diocese and the Governance Consultancy Team&nbsp;suggests how to handle the complaints process when the complaint relates to a governor or trustee. It may be an internal complaint, from a member of staff or another individual on the same board, or might be an external complaint from a third party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Boards are recommended to have a code of conduct in place, which all governors agree to uphold. Governors hold a public office and as such should also uphold the Nolan Principles of Public Life, namely:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Selflessness.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Integrity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Objectivity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Accountability.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Openness.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Honesty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Leadership.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The guidance suggests how the board can deal with and resolve a complaint involving a governor effectively, suggesting that a resolution to the issue should be sought at the least formal level in the first instance; complaints should be resolved as quickly as possible and the process of resolving a complaint should not be allowed to undermine the work of the governing board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where help and support is needed in managing a complaint against a governor, this could be sought from ourselves, the Diocese or another school governing board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Toolkit and complaints procedure The Complaints Guidance and Toolkit for schools enables governors, trustees, senior leaders and clerks to ensure that they can deal with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":981,"featured_media":0,"parent":6117,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-6516","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-01 19:55:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/981"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6516"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30418,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6516\/revisions\/30418"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}