Parents' complaints about other families: how to respond

Get expert advice to help you respond with confidence to complaints from parents about other pupils and parents.

Last reviewed on 14 January 2022
School types: AllSchool phases: AllRef: 12901
Contents
  1. Discuss all complaints in person
  2. Complaints about pupils 
  3. Complaints about other parents 

With thanks to our associate experts Jeremy Bird and Nina Siddall-Ward for their input - find out more about them at the bottom of the page.

Discuss all complaints in person

Do this regardless of whether the complaint is about a pupil or another parent. 

Invite the complaining parent into school to discuss the issues in person.

If there’s more than one parent making a complaint, invite them into the school individually rather than as a group. This may make it easier to find out the facts.

Outline your procedures at the beginning of the meeting  

Explain how your school handles complaints about pupils and other parents. To help you set these out, refer to our: 

Bear in mind that there could be other issues influencing the parent’s