East Riding Of Yorkshire Council
SCHOOL COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
GUIDANCE FOR PARENTS
Most complaints can be quickly resolved by talking to the teacher or member of staff concerned. To do this you can contact the school to arrange a time to meet with the person concerned and discuss the problem.
If you cannot resolve the matter directly with the person concerned, you should take it up with the Headteacher. Again, you can do this by contacting the school and arranging an appointment. It would be helpful if you could put your concerns in writing and let the Headteacher see them before you meet so that he/she is able to look into the matter and inform you of the situation at the meeting.
In a very small number of cases, the matter may not be resolved even with the involvement of the Headteacher. When this happens, the complaint should be directed to the Governing Body. In most cases, this means putting your complaint in writing to the Chair of Governors and sending it to him/her through the School. The Chair of Governors will then contact you.
If you do not discuss the matter with the Headteacher, it is not normally possible to proceed further with the official complaints procedure. In this circumstance, you should also put your complaint in writing, stating the reasons why you have not discussed it with the Headteacher, and send it to the Chair of Governors.
If the complaint cannot be resolved by the involvement of the Chair of Governors, you can ask for the complaint to be considered by the Governing Body's own Complaints Committee. You will then be informed in writing of the outcome.
The Local Authority does not investigate complaints directly. If a complaint is made either in writing or verbally to the
Director of Children, Family and Adult Services or to any officer of the Local Authority, the Governing Body of the school is made aware of the complaint and is requested to deal with it through the adopted procedure. If you are not satisfied with the process of the investigation, (not the outcome), you can make this known to the Director of Children, Family and Adult Services. However, further action can only be taken if it can be demonstrated that the agreed procedure has not been followed, or if the Governing Body has not correctly exercised its functions. Ultimately, you can complain to the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if you feel the Governing Body or the Local Authority has not reasonably exercised its functions.
May 2007
Intimate Care Statement
We live in a time when the safeguarding of children has never been more prominent, particularly in professions which deal with the well being of children.
The following statement sets out the protocol of Lockington C.E. Primary School for times when staff are required to deal with the intimate needs of children.
We define the term ’Intimate Care’ as being those occasions when staff must deal with a child who has wet or soiled themselves, when an injury occurs or when regular routine examinations are required, as agreed with parents.
Any of above may mean a child having to remove some of their own clothing, unless the situation was particularly severe e.g. a very nasty fall, when an adult would help.
On any occasion dealing with the above, the presence of two adults would be required and children would be given the privacy they require. There are occasions, however, in a small school, when it may not be possible to release two adults. It would then be the responsibility of the adult to ensure that she dealt with the child with such a degree of privacy that she would not be compromising herself.
All incidents would be dealt with in sensitively and with care and with no censure of the child.
Regarding toilet incidents, children would be encouraged to deal with themselves under the guidance of two supervising adults. Only children in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), our youngest children, may have the assistance of an adult and then only in the more extreme circumstances.
For children in Year 1 upwards, who cannot deal with the incident themselves, the parent would be asked to attend unless prior knowledge of a medical condition existed and there was written permission for an adult to assist.
Every effort would be made to inform parents, at the end of the school, if any of the above had occurred during the day.
