Disagreements and Complaints about Education

This information is about what you can do if your child has Special Educational Needs (SEN) or a disability and you are unhappy about the help they are getting.

Decisions about provision for children and young people with SEN or disabilities should be made jointly by providers, parents, and children and young people themselves, taking a person centred approach, with the views of children, young people and parents taken into account when those decisions are made.

The First Step

If you are not happy about the help that your child has at school, the first step is to talk to one of the following:

the Teacher (or for a nursery the Keyworker)
the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo)
the Headteacher (or Principal)

If your child has an Education, Health and Care plan, you can also contact the SEND Service at Southend Council.

You should explain your concerns and see if you can reach an agreement that suits you better. If after a meeting your concerns have not been resolved, you may want to consider other ways forward to resolve the situation.

Methods include:

making a formal complaint
requesting disagreement resolution
requesting mediation
making an appeal to the SEND tribunal

Raising your concerns in writing

Start with a positive. For example ‘Thank you for taking the time to talk to me yesterday, I really appreciated the opportunity. Unfortunately I still have some concerns and would be grateful if you could look into these for me…’
Use bullet points where you have more than one issue (or many concerns about the same issue).
Stick to the key points, sometimes a lot of background information can detract from your main concerns.
Include your child’s views, what they have said to you or how they are feeling.
It can be helpful to think about and include the outcome you are seeking.
Finish with another positive, for example ‘I really hope we can work together to resolve these issues and look forward to hearing from you very soon.’ You could include a date by which, if possible, you would like to hear back.

Next Step

If a meeting or raising concerns hasn’t worked, your next step is to complain directly to school. Every school in England must have a complaints procedure by law and it should be available on their website. If you can’t see it, ask for it. The school must give you a copy.

The complaints procedure will set out the steps you’ll need to follow to complain. Usually there are set times by which you should get a reply or response. There should also be information about the person or people who will be looking at and investigating your complaint. There are often several steps to the complaints process, which may include an appeals panel or review by a board of trustees or governors.

If you’re not satisfied with the way the school responds to your complaint the next step would usually be to complain to:

your local authority, if the school is a maintained one (overseen by the local authority) or you’re complaining about the support in an EHC plan not being given
the Education and Skills Funding Agency if the school is an academy or free school or if your complaint is not about an EHC plan

If you still have a problem you might be able to:

ask for independent disagreement resolution or mediation
appeal against a decision if your child has an EHC plan

If you think the school is doing all it can but your child needs even more help, you can ask the local authority for an EHC needs assessment.

Making a formal complaint to an education setting

If discussing your concerns has not reassured you, you could:

make a complaint by writing to the Head Teacher (or principal), marking it as ‘formal complaint’
complain to the Governing body or Trustees (their website will include information about how to contact)
ask for independent disagreement resolution or mediation meeting

Look at the setting’s own website for details about their complaints procedure.

For academies (and free schools) if you are unhappy with the outcome of your complaint, you may be able to complain to the Education Skills & Funding Agency.

Read the Government guidance around complaining about a school.

Complaining to the Local Authority

Local authority maintained schools

If your complaint is about a maintained school (maintained by the local authority) and you have been unable to resolve with the school directly, you may complain to the local authority.

Academies and free schools

You won’t usually be able complain to the local authority about an academy or free school. You can find the complaints procedure for the school on their website. If you are unhappy with the outcome, you may be able to complain to the Education Skills & Funding Agency.

Local authority services

You can complain to the local authority about a service, or if you believe a policy has been applied unfairly.

About an EHC plan

If you are unhappy with the provision your child is receiving or the provision in their plan is not being provided, or where the lawful timescales have been missed, you can contact the SEND Team to raise your concerns. If you are unsatisfied with their response you could lodge a formal complaint.

Complaining about the local authority to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

If you have followed the local authority complaints procedure and are still dissatisfied, you can complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) about:

School admissions

School transport

School exclusions

Special educational needs

Home education

You can only complain about something that the Local Authority has done wrong, or failed to do, that directly affected you or your child. This is known as ‘maladministration’. They will not get involved where you simply disagree with the action that has been taken by the Local Authority or school.

Examples of ‘maladministration’ include:

taken too long to take action, without good reason

not followed its own rules or the law

taken incorrect action or failed to take action at all

failed to follow it’s own polices

failed to provide information or given the wrong information

not made a decision in the correct way

failed to take relevant considerations into account in making a decision

failed to investigate

failed to deal with a letter or other enquiries

failed to comply with legal requirements

made misleading or inaccurate statements

Possible outcomes (if your complaint is upheld) might be asking the local authority to:

apologise to you

provide a service you should have had

make a decision it should have done before

reconsider a decision it did not take properly in the first place

improve its procedures so similar problems do not happen again

make a payment

Read more about complaining to the LGSCO

Mediation and Disagreement Resolution

Mediation is for some local authority decisions around an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment or Plan. The local authority must participate within 30 days of being notified by the provider (KIDS Mediation).  

Disagreement Resolution services are available for a range of other issues relating to SEND. Participation is voluntary.  

Read more about disagreement resolution

In Southend, these services are provided by KIDS Mediation.

You can read more about mediation on our webpage.

Appealing to the SEND Tribunal service about an Education, Health and Care Plan

You can appeal these local authority decisions:

refusal to carry out an EHC needs assessment

refusal to issue an EHC plan

the final EHC plan or amended plan

decision not to amend an EHC plan

decision to cease to maintain an EHC plan

but you must first consider mediation.

Read our information about appealing to the SEND Tribunal Service

Disability Discrimination Claims

Nurseries, Schools and Colleges must take steps to ensure disabled children and young people are not substantially disadvantaged due to their disability. ‘ Reasonable adjustments‘ is the term used to describe these in law. 

The SEND Code of Practice summarises the Equality Act duty and says Nurseries, Schools and Colleges must:

not directly or indirectly discriminate against, harass or victimise disabled children and young people

make reasonable adjustments, including the provision of auxiliary aids and services, to ensure that disabled children and young people are not at a substantial disadvantage compared with their peers. This duty is anticipatory – it requires thought to be given in advance to what disabled children and young people might require and what adjustments might need to be made to prevent that disadvantage

If you feel your disabled child has been discriminated against (within the last six months you could consider complaining to the SEND Tribunal.

Take a look at the information from Child Law Advice about disability discrimination

Judicial Review

This is a formal legal route and you may wish to seek legal representation.

You can ask a court (within three months) to consider whether the action taken by the local authority was made in a lawful, fair and reasonable manner and a few possible examples might be:

Failure to

provide a full-time education

provide transport

issue an EHC plan

secure the provision in an EHC plan

comply with SEND Tribunal decisions

carry out an annual review

Find out about how to apply to court for Judicial Review.

IPSEA have some useful information about the process.

Ofsted

Ofsted will not handle individual complaints about a school. However, it may be possible to let them know about general concerns you have.

When a school your child attends has a visit from Ofsted, you will have an opportunity to share your views confidentially, known as ‘parent view’.

Read more about what you can raise with Ofsted.

More Help

Contact, the charity for the families of disabled children, has detailed information about:

School and college complaints – including taking complaints further to the Local authority, the Local Government Ombudsman or going to Judicial review.
Disability discrimination – This is when a disabled child or young person is treated in a worse way than a non-disabled child, or where a school hasn’t done things differently for a disabled pupil where it’s needed.

If you think the school is doing all it can but your child needs even more help, you can ask the local authority for an EHC needs assessment.

SENDIASS can tell you more about each of these and help you decide what to do.

Words can never express how grateful we will always be for your help. It goes without saying that we could not have done it without you”