Leaders, local authorities, parents and carers frequently ask about how we deal with complaints about a school. When we receive a complaint, we never rush to inspect. In this blog, I’ll explain the processes that we follow when deciding whether to inspect a school.
If a parent has a concern about their child’s school, they should first go through their school’s internal processes. This is an important step, as we know that problems are better solved this way. If they have not found a resolution there, they may wish to complain to Ofsted.
We take every complaint seriously, but I’d like to reassure you that we take action on a relatively small number of complaints, and that number has not really increased. We do, however, recognise that there is a perception that an increase in complaints is prompting us to conduct more urgent inspections. This simply isn’t the case.
What parents should do first
Before contacting us, a parent should:
- contact the school informally – for example, by talking to a teacher about the problem
- if things cannot be resolved this way, consider making a formal complaint to the school
- if they’re still dissatisfied, follow the next steps in the school’s complaint procedure – for example, making a complaint to the governing body or another organisation
We do, however, regularly see examples of parents not fully following the school’s complaints process or bypassing the school entirely before approaching us. When a parent comes to us directly, we encourage them to approach the school first. We will continue to stress to parents that we can’t resolve differences between them and a school or affect the results of a school’s complaints process.
Ofsted’s powers to consider complaints
The purpose of our legislative powers to investigate complaints about schools is to help us decide whether we need to inspect a school sooner than scheduled. Where a complaint meets the criteria for us to consider it further, we assess whether the wider concerns raised about the school are serious enough to warrant an inspection.
A qualifying complaint for Ofsted would be one that raises a serious issue that affects the whole school. As an inspectorate, we do not have the power to investigate individual circumstances – instead, we consider the broad themes that arise.
For a complaint to qualify:
- all local complaint routes should have been followed (although we do have the power to waive this where there are potentially serious matters of concern that affect the whole school)
- it must raise wider concerns about the school
- it must relate to one or more of the following areas:
- the quality of education provided in the school
- how far the education provided in the school meets the range of pupils at the school
- the quality of leadership and management
- the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the pupils at the school
- the contribution made by the school to the wellbeing of those pupils
Some complaints do not qualify for investigation by Ofsted, for example when parents have not completed formal complaint routes. In these cases, we advise parents where they can find support with their complaint. Around 18,400 complaints have been considered this financial year, of which around 16,700 complaints did not meet the criteria above.
We do not have powers to investigate individual safeguarding matters, so we refer these to the local authority or police. Around 70% of all complaints considered this year contained safeguarding concerns.
How we investigate complaints
Qualifying complaints are usually about the leadership and management of a school, or pupils’ wellbeing, or both. This year, we considered around 1,710 qualifying complaints. Our process to examine the complaint to see whether it merits any action is called an investigation.
Investigations are a desk-based exercise to gather information and to make a recommendation to an Ofsted regional director on whether there is a need to inspect.
Investigations typically include:
- a review of previous inspection reports
- a review of Ofsted Parent View results
- discussions with the school and other agencies
- previous complaint history or other contextual information
- review and evaluation of all information gathered to inform outcomes
A school is informed in writing about the outcome of a qualifying complaint.
If we think the complaint does merit action, we can bring forward an inspection of the school or retain the information for the school’s next inspection. This year, we have retained information from around 1,600 qualifying complaints to consider them at the next scheduled school inspection. That’s around 93% of the qualifying complaints that we considered this year.
This does not necessarily mean there is a problem with a school. It can, in some cases, demonstrate positive actions that leaders have taken in relation to complaints. Retaining a complaint provides a lead inspector with information ahead of an inspection so that the broader themes the complaint raised can be discussed with leaders.
We do not expect leaders to provide any evidence of investigation into the complaint. Instead, the lead inspector will be looking at the themes raised in the complaint alongside the school’s policies and procedures, and other evidence gained on inspection. Inspectors will have an open mind and will alert you during your next inspection if we have retained the information from a qualifying complaint.
There are, of course, times when we decide that a complaint is serious enough to necessitate an immediate inspection or to bring forward a scheduled inspection. This could be if we have concerns that pupils or staff are at risk, or if there’s evidence to suggest a significant decline in standards or a breakdown in leadership.
This year, we carried out 25 immediate inspections following complaints, less than 1% of complaints we considered. This compares with 35 immediate inspections last year. So the rise in complaints has not led to a rise in urgent inspections. In addition, we brought forward 31 already scheduled inspections this year.
It is important that parents can come to us if they have come to the end of a school’s own processes. But we want to be clear that we never rush to inspect without carefully considering whether this is the right and proportionate thing to do, in the interests of pupils.
You can read a summary of complaints about schools for the 2024–25 financial year.