- 1 General Principles

Catholic schools aim to be places where love of one’s neighbour is evident at all times. Christ said to His disciples at the Last Supper “This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.” It is in wishing to uphold this principal that Catholic schools, and those who work there, commit themselves to care for their school community and uphold the Catholic doctrine and the ethos of the school. Nevertheless, as in any organisation, there can be times when a complaint may arise and the aim of this Complaints Policy is to set out how those complaints will be dealt with and how the school will work with all parties involved towards achieving a satisfactory resolution.

The main purposes of this Complaints Policy is to:

- • problems as swiftly as possible, ideally through an early informal stage. • problems as swiftly as possible, ideally through an early informal stage.
- • complainants a means to raise complaints and to have them addressed. • complainants a means to raise complaints and to have them addressed.
- • who a complaint should be directed to at the different stages and how they • who a complaint should be directed to at the different stages and how they will be dealt with at each stage, including expected timescales.
- • all parties to raise and/or respond to complaints as quickly as possible so • all parties to raise and/or respond to complaints as quickly as possible so that they may be dealt with swiftly and whilst the matter is still fresh in people’s minds.
- • that at all stages of this policy any discussions, consideration and hearings will • that at all stages of this policy any discussions, consideration and hearings will be held with the intention to resolve the complaint rather than apportion blame.

It should be noted that this Complaints Policy does not replace the arrangements for dealing with certain types of complaint that fall outside of its remit and are covered by other policies, for example, admissions to schools, statutory assessments of Special Educational Needs, school re-organisation proposals, any matter that may require a Child Protection Investigation, exclusions, whistleblowing, staff grievances and disciplinary procedures and complaints about services provided by third parties using the school premises or facilities.

This policy is for use by all Catholic academy schools and some school’s governance terminology differs within Archdiocesan Multi Academy Companies. This policy uses the term Governor throughout, but in some schools Governors are known as Representatives. The term Local Governing Body is used throughout but in some schools this is known as an Academy Committee. The term Governor should be taken as being either a Governor or Representative as applicable and the term Local Governing Body should be taken as being either the Local Governing Body or the Academy Committee for the school as applicable.

Schools recognise that complainants can be submitted by anyone, not just by parents of pupils in the school. Complaints will be dealt with consistently regardless of who the complainant is.

- 2 The Role of the Individual Governor

It is important that everyone understands that no individual Governor may deal with a complaint. Anyone considering raising a complaint with the school should refer to the Complaints Management Procedure (Appendix B) to check who the complaint should be directed to.

Governors should not get into discussion with a complainant if they are approached but should advise them only of the procedure to follow. If the situation is such that the Governor has to listen in order to help to direct the complainant, then this would prejudice their impartiality if the complaint is raised and they would be unable to take part in the process any further. Should this situation arise, the Governor concerned must inform the Chair of Governors accordingly.

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