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Stakeholder engagement

The school complaints landscape

Research study setting out insights and priorities for complaints system reform

Research
29/09/2025
school-environment family using zebra crossing

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.

This research report highlights the unique perspective of governors and trustees and identifies where reform could be targeted to reduce complaint volumes and strengthen the overall system.

Research overview

This research draws on multiple data sources to examine the volume, nature and themes of complaints in schools and trusts. Evidence includes Annual Governance Surveys, °ÅÀÖÊÓƵÏÂÔØapp polls and Gold Advice case records as well as a recent targeted survey. The combination of sources offers a well-rounded view of current issues and challenges within the complaints landscape.

Complaints landscape report

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Key findings

  • 82% of governors and trustees say that complaints have increased in their setting overthe past 3 to 5 years, with half (50%) reporting significant increases.
  • The rising volume of complaints over the past 3 to 5 years is more prevalent for secondary phase settings (where 93% of respondents reported a rise) compared to primary (79%).
  • Main topics of complaint relate to special educational needs and disability (SEND), teacher interaction, bullying, school management, and attendance.
  • Schools and trusts are also receiving a notable amount of vexatious and unreasonable complaints.
  • The top 3 actions governors and trustees think schools/trusts could take to reduce complaints include:
    o have strong parental/stakeholder engagement and communication (42%)
    o take early intervention to prevent escalation (16%)
    o have more effective complaints management processes (11%)
  • The top 3 actions governors and trustees think the DfE could take to reduce complaints include:
    o provide more SEND funding (15%)
    o design more robust complaints procedures (13%)
    o manage parents’ expectations of schools (11%)

  • “This is an important piece of research from °ÅÀÖÊÓƵÏÂÔØapp. For too long, schools have struggled to prioritise parental engagement, even though poor engagement drives many of the challenges schools face, such as complaints and absence. It is encouraging to see policymakers now placing parental engagement at the heart of school improvement. The evidence is clear, when parents feel respected and involved, schools are stronger and children do better."

    Jason Elsom

    Chief Executive of Parentkind

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