BISPP sets out procedures for responding to complaints made against the school. The school is committed to the best practice possible. Therefore, all concerns will be treated seriously. The policy is that concerns have to be handled, if at all possible, without the need for formal procedures. The school will address informal concerns seriously at the earliest stage to reduce the need for lengthy and time-consuming formal procedures. This policy applies to complaints made by parents/guardians of students at BISPP, individuals who either have parental responsibility for a student or who care for them, but are not the student’s parents and third parties concerned about action or lack of action taken by the school.
To ensure that you receive an effective response to your complaint, it will be helpful if you co-operate with the school in finding a solution to the complaint, so express the complaint in detail and be specific as early as possible by filling out a complaint form. Respond promptly to the request for more information or a meeting. Ask for assistance if needed, and treat all parties involved in the complaint with respect.
Informal Stage
- Many concerns can be dealt with informally. Your first point of contact should be the student’s homeroom teacher, campus manager, or academic manager.
- Arrangements will be made to meet with you or to make contact by telephone, or in writing, as soon as possible. The member of staff dealing with the issue should make a brief note of the concerns and an indication of the outcome of the discussion including any agreed actions.
- When you raise a complaint, depending upon the circumstances, the school will consider who would be the appropriate person to address and whether it should be dealt with informally or moved to the formal stage.
- It may be necessary to take advice before responding to a concern. If so, the school will endeavor to provide you with an update on the progress of their inquiries as quickly as possible.
- If you remain dissatisfied following this informal approach, you may raise a formal complaint.
Formal Stage
Formal consideration of your complaint
- Where you have been unable to resolve a concern informally, you are entitled to progress to the formal stage.
- Formal complaints should be lodged as soon as possible but no later than 3 months after the incident or issue has occurred. (The school may consider exceptions to this rule if, for example, the matter relates to child protection or safeguarding).
- Formal complaints should, where possible, be put in writing to the Head Teacher, using a BISPP complaints form, the form should include details of the complaint, action that has already been taken to resolve it, and actions that may help to resolve the problem. If the complaint concerns the Campus Manager or Academic Manager, it should be sent to the Managing Director. If the complaint is about the Managing Director it should be made in writing to the Chairman of the school and if the complaint is about the Chairman of the school then it should be made in writing to the government. The school will acknowledge the complaint in writing within 3 school days of receiving it.
- The Campus Manager or Academic Manager will investigate the complaint. The person investigating the complaint should not have had any prior involvement with the case.
- During the investigation the Campus Manager or Academic Manager should contact you to clarify the details of the complaint as necessary. You will be allowed the opportunity to meet with either one of them. If you wish, you may ask someone (not acting in a legal capacity) to accompany you to the meeting for support and to help you to explain the reasons for your complaint. The choice of person is your own but it may be preferable to involve someone in whom you have confidence but who is not directly connected with the school.
- The Campus Manager or Academic Manager will, where necessary, talk to witnesses and take statements from those involved.
- If the complaint involves a pupil, the parent/carer should be contacted; if interviewed, ideally a parent/carer should be present. In some cases, this might not be possible with a member of staff with whom the pupil feels comfortable; for example, a learning mentor should attend the interview. Parents should be told if their child is to be interviewed.
- Confidentiality is important in securing the confidence of all concerned. Conversations and correspondence must be treated with discretion. However, the parties to a complaint should be aware that some information may have to be shared to carry out a thorough investigation.
- Once the Campus Manager or Academic Manager has established all the relevant facts, they will provide a written response to you. This will explain the Campus Manager or Academic Manager’s decision and the reasons for it. If follow-up action is needed, the school will indicate, where appropriate, what they are proposing to do. You may be invited to a meeting to discuss the outcome.
- The school will aim to respond to formal complaints within 15 school days. If this is not possible the school will write to you to ensure you are kept informed of their progress in addressing their complaint.
Closure of Complaints
- BISPP may feel that, regretfully, we need to close a complaint despite the complainant remaining dissatisfied. The school will do all they can to help resolve a complaint, but it may simply not be possible to meet all of the complainant’s wishes. Sometimes it may be a case of agreeing to disagree.
- Serial or persistent representations can be detracting which could affect key responsibilities at school. For this reason, the school reserves the right to close a complaint and cease correspondence where all reasonable action has been taken to resolve the complaint and the official process has been exhausted.
- If the complainant continues to make representations to the school or attempts are made to re-open the same issue, then the correspondence may be recognized as vexatious and the chairman of the school will inform them in writing, that the procedures have all been followed and that all reasonable action has been taken to try to resolve the issue and that the matter is now closed. There will be no obligation on the part of the school to engage in any further correspondence.
