Best Practice

Complaints & investigations: Why they arise and what to do

Every school leader will have to handle complaints and oversee subsequent investigations. Expert Dave Verma offers some advice on handling the initial complaint and conducting a professional investigation...


An inevitable challenge of running a school will be having to handle (hopefully rare) complaints, allegations and grievances.

These can come via parents, Ofsted, teachers, current members of staff, former members of staff, and the children themselves. They can also arise from auditors and human resources.

Sometimes complaints are made in a timely, genuine and generally understandable fashion, at other times they can be strangely timed and may appear malicious. However, even malicious allegations can have significant truth behind them.

During my work as an independent investigator in the local government and schools sector, I often find that allegations have been festering away for an awfully long time and that the person/s making the allegation have not come forward simply because the time was not right.

Register now, read forever

Thank you for visiting SecEd and reading some of our content for professionals in secondary education. Register now for free to get unlimited access to all content.

What's included:

  • Unlimited access to news, best practice articles and podcast

  • New content and e-bulletins delivered straight to your inbox every Monday and Thursday

Register

Already have an account? Sign in here

Related articles