Department for Education

3. Mrs A complains that the School Complaints Compliance Unit (SCCU) at DfE failed to investigate her governance complaint about her son’s school. She says the school rigged the parent governor elections in the Autumn of 2024 and SCCU did not consider her evidence.

4. She says this has caused significant distress. It led to the school excluding her son in retaliation of her complaint and she was wrongly accused of assault. She has also faced hostile comments in the parent’s messaging groups.

5. Mrs A asks for a formal apology and service improvements, specifically for: • DfE to thoroughly investigate school governance complaints • DfE to provide all relevant documents for verification, to support her advocacy for her sons EHCP rights • support fair election processes to prevent future maladministration.

6. Mrs A also asks for a financial payment of £2,500 which covers her distress, harm to her son and financial losses at home.

7. Mrs A raised her concerns about the school’s election process with SCCU at DfE on 4 March 2025. It responded on 24 June.

10. Before we decide if we should conduct a detailed investigation of a complaint, we look at whether there are signs the organisation has got something wrong. We do this by comparing what should have happened with what did happen. We have done this and have not found any indications that something has gone wrong.

11. SCCU is part of DfE. It considers complaints about maintained schools on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education. The Secretary of State may only intervene in local matters in limited circumstances. It considers whether a school has dealt with a complaint in line with education legislation and any relevant statutory policies.

12. The Education Act 1996, sections 496 and 497 says if it finds a school has not acted reasonably or lawfully under education law, and it appears expedient (identifies a practical action), it can instruct the school accordingly.

13. However, these actions usually take the form of a technical or procedural change in a school’s policies or procedures, to ensure they carry out their duties required by education legislation. These changes do not always result in a different outcome to a complaint.

14. Our Principles refer to getting it right and being open and accountable.

15. It seems the reason why DfE did not look at the complaint is twofold. Firstly, the school applied its serial and unreasonable complaints policy. Secondly there was no action to take as a result because Mrs A’s son had left the school.

16. DfE’s role is not to get involved in the complaint to the school about this issue or decide whether the school was right. It can only consider if the school has acted in line with legislation and statutory policy, or whether it acted unreasonably.

17. It is not our role to make a finding on Mrs A’s complaint about the actions of the school. Our role is strictly to look at DfE’s complaints handling and whether it acted in line with legislation, guidance and our Principles.

18. We can see that DfE considered the reasons why the school did not allow Mrs A’s complaint to proceed through its complaint process. It noted the school implemented its serial and unreasonable complaints policy.

19. The DfE produces a model policy for schools to adopt to support them in making such decisions. DfE’s guidance says schools should incorporate a serial and unreasonable complaints policy into its complaints procedure.

20. DfE cannot overturn a school’s decision to use their serial and unreasonable complaints policy. It cannot consider these issues under the service complaint procedure, because they do not relate to the service they provide, but are decisions taken in accordance with their legal framework.

21. It considered the schools actions were reasonable, and it did not comment on the merit of those concerns because it is not its role to do so. As such, it considered the matter as far as it was able, reached a decision and clearly communicated it to Mrs A.

22. DfE also explained that because Mrs A’s son is no longer registered at the school, she is not eligible to be appointed as a school governor. It would not, therefore, be expedient for DfE to instruct the school to consider her complaint about the election process. Because the school could not consider her for that position.

23. If DfE cannot take any expedient action, the Secretary of State’s powers of intervention cannot be used.

24. Only the parent of a child registered at the school can apply for school governor. Therefore, DfE had no power to intervene because the outcome would not make a difference and there was no practical action.

25. We can see that DfE considered Mrs A’s complaint and decided it could not take any further action. It explained the relevant sections of guidance that are applicable to its decision and the reasons for this.

26. Our understanding is DfE cannot use the powers of intervention when there is no expedient action it can take, and it cannot overturn a school’s decision if they act lawfully and reasonably. It supports schools to use a serial and unreasonable complaints policy and provide a model one for them to adopt.

27. There is no indication DfE needed to take any action in this instance.

28. We are satisfied that DfE has acted in line with our Principles. It met our expectation of ‘getting it right’ by making a decision in line with the relevant guidance and has been ‘open and accountable’ by giving a clear decision.

29. We therefore see no indications of mistakes or service failure in the way it handled or responded to Mrs A’s complaint.

30. We recognise the frustration these concerns have caused Mrs A. We know how important her complaint is to her and the difficult experience she has had.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs A’s complaint about the Department for Education (DfE). We are sorry to hear about her concerns. We recognise this has been a frustrating time for her.

2. We have seen no indications anything went wrong when DfE handled and responded to Mrs A’s complaint. We have decided not to take any further action on this complaint.