How Ofsted considers complaints about schools

Ofsted have released a blog discussing how they deal with complaints from parents about schools.

They stress what parents should do before contacting Ofsted:

• Contact the school informally – for example, by talking to a teacher about the problem
• If things cannot be resolved this way, consider making a formal complaint to the school
• If they’re still dissatisfied, follow the next steps in the school’s complaint procedure – for example, making a complaint to the governing body or another organisation.

They do, however, regularly see examples of parents not fully following the school’s complaints process or bypassing the school entirely before approaching them. When a parent goes to Ofsted directly, they are encouraged to approach the school first.

This year, Ofsted carried out 25 immediate inspections following complaints, less than 1% of complaints they considered. This compares with 35 immediate inspections last year. So the rise in complaints has not led to a rise in urgent inspections.