Persistent Pressures From Parental Complaints

Managing the rise of parental complaints can have a huge impact on leadership in schools. Our Director of HR & Education Strategy, Rachel Foster, shares expert advice to help you respond effectively to concerns and ensure matters are resolved. Interacting with parents is fundamental for any school, from day-to-day queries to formal complaints. It is natural that parents may from time to time be concerned about some aspect of their child’s education or welfare at school. A school, like any other organisation, will sometimes receive feedback from parents that is less than positive.

However, formal parental complaints are increasing in frequency and complexity with school leaders devoting a significant amount of time to their resolution, in an era when resources are already extremely stretched. A Schools Week investigation found headteachers “weren’t sleeping” due to stress over complaints, with many generated by artificial intelligence. A National Governors Association’s (NGA) recent research study stated ‘In the past year alone, over five million formal complaints are estimated to have been made by parents about schools. This reflects a clear and sustained increase in both the volume and complexity of parental complaints in recent years…. with 82% of governors and trustees say that complaints have increased in their setting over the past 3 to 5 years, with half (50%) reporting significant increases.’ In previous years the then Ofsted’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, stated the “unwritten agreement” between parents and schools in England was broken after Covid. When delivering her final annual report, Spielman said she had noticed a disturbing “shift in attitudes” among pupils and parents.

Data released by the Department for Education (DfE) indicates complaints to Ofsted about schools rose by 5% in the 2024-25 financial year, reaching 16,700 cases, the equivalent of more than 45 complaints per day. Despite this, fewer complaints met the criteria for investigation, with only 9% deemed to be qualifying, down from 12% the previous year, meaning 91% were classed as non-qualifying. Noting a growing trend of families bypassing schools entirely, Ofsted’s current Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver, emphasised that the vast majority of complaints can be resolved quickly and amicably at school level, without the need for escalation to Ofsted, if communication remains constructive.

The HR service at One Education has seen a significant increase in the number of schools looking for support with parental complaints; from queries to our helpline to hands-on support regarding communication with parents, as well as meetings, including formal mediation, to aid resolution. The focus of the complaints we have dealt with over the last year, coming from various types of educational establishments, will no doubt be reflected across the country:

• Headteacher 37%
• Teacher 37%
• TA 16%
• LO 5%
• Others 5%

There is obviously a difference between parental concerns and formal complaints. A concern may be treated as an expression of worry or doubt over an issue for which reassurances are sought. Parental concerns ought to be handled, if at all possible, without the need for formal procedures. School leaders and indeed all school staff are used to managing these interactions on a daily basis. It is in everyone’s interest that these concerns are resolved at the earliest possible stage. Schools need to take informal concerns seriously, as careful communication with parents at this stage can stop the flow of consistent complaints and even prevent escalation to more aggressive behaviour.

Any educational establishment will always want families to feel listened to, supported and clear about how to share any worries with them. We recognise that parental concerns give rise to stressful situations for all those involved; the families and the school staff themselves. Training staff in how to respond and manage these occurrences can “nip matters in the bud” and create a culture of open communication with this key stakeholder group. Timeliness and effective communication is essential when managing either informal concerns or formal complaints.

A complaint may be generally recognised as a statement of dissatisfaction, either about actions that have been taken or a lack of action. Parental complaints need to be considered and resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible. When reviewing schools’ complaints procedures, we may recommend that schools amend their time limits if they are unreasonably excessive or restrictive. Even if you find that a complaint is without merit or unfounded, you could still be criticised for not dealing with it within your published timescales and remember to prioritise complaints even outside of term time.

Each school must have a distinct complaints policy, a guidance document is insufficient. While schools are free to adopt their Local Authority’s model policy, it must be tailored to the individual school. In accordance with Section 29(1) of the Education Act 2002, all maintained schools and maintained nursery schools must have and publish procedures to deal with all complaints relating to their school and to any community facilities or services that the school provides, for which there are no separate (statutory) procedures. All academies must have a complaints procedure, which must meet the requirements in the standard at the Education (Independent School Standards (England)) Regulations 2014 Schedule 1, Part 7. This policy needs to be published on the website.

The complaints policy needs to be clear about the process, but also what isn’t covered. Your complaints procedure should not cover things such as admissions, exclusions, HR matters i.e. grievance/disciplinary/ capability, whistleblowing, child protection and statutory assessments. There should be separate published policies and procedures for handling appeals, complaints and procedures in relation to these.

New guidance published in early 2026 by Parentkind and developed in collaboration with the DfE, Ofsted and 13 education bodies, including the NGA, was in response to growing concerns about escalating disputes and abuse directed at school staff. There are 2 guides one for parents and one for schools

A notable section in the parent guide sets out behaviours that can hinder or derail the complaints process, including aggressive conduct, personal targeting of staff, use of social media to escalate disputes, or relying on AI-generated complaints that may inaccurately cite legislation. It also explains the possible consequences for parents whose behaviour becomes abusive, such as warnings, pauses in the process or bans from school premises. The guidance promotes a model of cooperation and mutual respect with the intent to preserve positive long-term relationships between parents and schools while still providing routes for challenge and escalation where necessary.

The companion guide, written for schools, provides a structured framework for staff responding to issues raised by parents. It highlights the scale of complaints and the lack of staff training, noting that teachers rarely receive formal guidance in this area. The document sets out the CLEAR model: Categorise, Listen, Empathise, Ask and Respond, as its core practical framework.

The government has also announced it will create a “digital, accessible solution” for handling complaints, with new expectations aimed at improving relations between parents and leaders. 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.

The proposed digital platform could be an interesting tool, and many schools would welcome a system that streamlines the submission and management of complaints. As we have seen a visible rise in parents raising the same or connected issues with several agencies as the same time, leading to multiple communications and enquiries, adding even more pressure and impact on resource for schools. However, it remains unclear how the platform alone will address these challenges.

The impact of social media and AI has added to the rising pressure from parental complaints and has steadily increased the number and complexity of these complaints. Social media can sometimes result in ‘group’ complaints stemming from WhatsApp groups and other forums set up specifically related to the issues in questions. Group complaints can make it more difficult to manage abusive parents or declare complaints closed. Instead, you should deal with parents’ complaints separately and hold individual meetings.

Teacher Tapp data suggests 61 per cent of heads have noticed the use of AI in complaints they’ve received. Whilst AI has many positives, in a complaint context it can be unhelpful, producing lengthy, legalistic letters, that raise multiple grounds of complaint when all that is really at stake is a small concern or niggle that would be better addressed by speaking to someone.

It is helpful that the new Parentkind guidance also says that using social media and behaving aggressively can “make matters worse” during the complaints process. It adds that parents should only use AI “with caution” as it “doesn’t always get it right when citing laws and can make a complaint more complex than necessary”. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said “We particularly welcome the advice to parents to keep complaints away from social media, and to not to use AI to draft complaints.”

AI-assisted complaints in schools often include: legalistic language, multiple issues, references to legislation or case law that may be inaccurate or misapplied or even from other countries, threatening tone or implied legal threats; and broad expectations. Also, AI-generated complaints commonly include incorrect factual or even fabricated statements.

Whilst parents cannot be prevented from using AI to raise complaints, guidance can be included in the policy highlighting the risks of doing so, including the potential issues relating to data protection and confidentiality.

Occasionally, despite all stages of the complaint procedure having been followed, there will be times when the parent remains dissatisfied. If a parent tries to re-open the same issue, you can inform them that the procedure has been completed and that the matter is now closed. If the parent contacts you again on the same issue, the correspondence may then be viewed as ‘serial’ or ‘persistent’ and you may choose not to respond. However, you should not mark a complaint as ‘serial’ before the parent has completed the procedure, unless your published serial complaint criteria apply. If there is an element of new evidence or a fresh issue / event as part of the ongoing communication then this can’t be ignored – you have to separate the ‘complaint’ from the ‘complainant’. Schools should not refuse to accept further correspondence or complaints from an individual they have had repeat or excessive contact with. Schools may find it useful to establish a policy for managing serial and unreasonable complaints, which we recommend is included in the school’s published procedure. Sometimes a communication strategy for persistent correspondents is advised regarding daily interactions from reception staff, class teachers, DSL and other senior leaders for addressing who and what is expected including response times. If an individual’s behaviour is a cause for concern, they can be asked to leave school premises and even be barred from the school site, as an employer the school has a duty of care for all its staff.

There will be occasions when a school can stop responding — if you have taken every reasonable step to address the complainant’s concerns AND the complainant has been given a clear statement of your position and their options. Or if the complainant contacts you repeatedly, making substantially the same points each time. The case to stop responding is stronger if this can be evidenced by a detailed audit trail. But you should not stop responding just because an individual is difficult to deal with or asks complex questions.

Schools often feel that they are simply fire-fighting in responding to individual complaints. Taking the strategic time to consider the bigger picture when it comes to the school’s complaints policy and process can reduce the administrative and emotional burden on staff and help to build more constructive relationships with parents. As Parentkind state ‘Most school complaints don’t start as complaints — they start as confusion, worry or a feeling of not being heard.’

The impact on resources and effect on the wellbeing of all staff either named or involved in the management of the complaints can never be underestimated, including governors or trustees at hearing stages. As reported in TES, almost a quarter of school and trust leaders say rising parent complaints have contributed to staff leaving in the past year.

It must be remembered that schools and academies can utilise complaints in a positive way too! A bit like a debrief or “wash down” after a critical incident. School leaders can affirm what works well and praise positive actions by staff. But the complaints process itself enables leaders to also assess the robustness of school processes, practices, and communication by identifying faults and testing internal systems. Assumptions that processes are still working and applied consistently is often costly and reviewing them from other stakeholders’ point of view can be beneficial.

Ultimately, an individual schools’ effectiveness at handling parental complaints is likely to depend upon a combination of factors, including: the robustness of their complaints policies and procedures, the ethos / outlook of the school towards parental complaints, the level of access to training for staff; and the relationships with the local authority and other external partners.

If you would like further support regarding parental complaints or any other HR matter, please contact our team.