Governors ignoring complaint/concerns

[Unfairexclusion]

Letter was sent by recorded delivery 3 weeks ago. Not even had any acknowledgement of this (have confirmation of receipt) so any idea what we can do now?
We have very valid concerns and questions regarding a permanent exclusion and do not feel that proper procedures were followed.
Cannot obtain a copy of the complaints policy as it won't be issued without agreement from the HT. The LA say that it is a matter for the school so won't get involved.

There will be a chief of Governors at the LEA who you can complain to - look at the IPSEA/ACE and Contact a family websites to see what they say the latter has a well manned helpline that will be easier to get through to than the first 2.

Would Parent Partnership be able to advise you?

Or is it appropriate to contact ofsted to complain?

Not found PP very helpful in the past. I don't think Ofsted look at individual cases - only where several children may be affected.

would it not be appropriate to raise it as a concern about policy? ie the policy to not release important procedures when asked for? Or policies not being followed?

this seems to indicate that it might be appropriate to raise such concerns

Was it your child who was excluded? If so, you should have been given information about the right to a review of the exclusion by the governors.

I thought every parent was entitled to a copy of the complaints policy. Have you checked the school's website?

www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/statutory/g00210521/statutory-guidance-regs-2012

Have a read of this - this may help. Your LA should have a exclusions officer who may be able to help as well. You are entitled to a hearing with an independent review panel which needs to be set up.

I think you have to have a governors' review before the independent review kicks in.

Yes sorry, nennypops I missed out a whole stage.

If the governors decide not to reinstate then you have an independent review

It was the LA Exclusion officer who directed us to the school. Basically, he was excluded after school said they couldn't meet his needs and, we feel, due to his disability. A placement was already being arranged elsewhere which they were aware of but decided to exclude anyway. We were told that the new sm could not be finalised for various reasons and were asked by the LA to agree to a delay of the governors hearing which had to be held by a certain date. We refused as we wanted to put our case across and felt strongly that errors had been made. LA advised that the school had probably not planned to hold a meeting with us as they had expected the sm to be amended in time so they could just simply withdraw it. No consideration was given to the total distress that had been caused by their decision and ds has been left without full time education for over 2 months.
After we spoke to LA the exclusion was incredibly withdrawn 'minutes' later . We were told that if we felt that procedures had not been followed to take it up with the Gov's which is what we have done for them just to apparently ignore the issue.

nenny it's the school website that states no policies will be issued without the HT's agreement. This is a very new procedure added shortly after I was given some policies by them

In our letter from the exclusions officer at our LA is states that the Headteacher must make sure you with information relating to:

The parent's right to state their case to the governors
Who the parents should contact if they wish to state their case (we were rung up by the clerk to the governors to check proposed time was convenient)
The parents right to see their school record.
The name and telephone number of a contact at the LA whoc can provide advice on the exclusions process and the telephone number for the National Childrens bureau helpline 020 7843 6000.

If this has not been supplied then it will add to your case.

You then have fifteen days to appeal from the inital govenors decision.

Parents partnership were quite difficult to get hold of but quite informative when eventually we did make contact.

Am also using the IPSEA website for guidance on our rights.

Sounds like you could do with a lawyers' advice. If he's not getting his needs met and not getting full time education, the council needs to be kicked into doing its job, and maybe you're better off just getting out of that school

OneinEight, if they've withdrawn the exclusion then presumably none of that applies any more?

Our school complaints policy states that a response to a complaint to the Governors will normally be received within 10 schools days. This will not include half term, so they could still be within their limit. Unfortunately, of course, you can't check this if they won't give you a copy of the complaints policy.

However, the Governors do have a statutory duty to publicise the complaints procedure under the Education Act 2002

"The governing body of a maintained school shall?

(a)establish procedures for dealing with all complaints relating to the school or to the provision of facilities or services under section 27, other than complaints falling to be dealt with in accordance with any procedures required to be established in relation to the school by virtue of a statutory provision other than this section, and

(b)publicise the procedures so established."

Did you post about this before? If not, there may be a helpful thread! If the exclusion was withdrawn before the hearing, none of the exclusions guidance will apply. If an academy, the la will have limited powers beyond data gathering. Board of trustees, then secretary of state if an academy.

You might be better off going down the disability discrimination route as they seem to be playing the 'exclusion which was not an exclusion' card.

Tribunal has guide for parents. Looks like 6 months time limit from discrimination.

The LA should accept the relationship with this school has completely broken down and should have provided home tutor or another school place after 15 days of being out of school. See IPSEA guidance on exclusions and DFE. If the LA refuse consider making a complaint to Local Government Ombudsman if only to get LA to take you seriously / speed up the new placement.

sorry but i had zilch f.a from the bloody governing body/pwp/ofsted and all the rest.

even went to social services about it.
DC was excluded for 2 days as a teacher accused her of assault.

DC/sn/meltdowns/''trained'' staff who get some sort of 'bashing' every single day from sn kids/picked on me just cos Im a lone parent therefore child badly brought up of course.

now home edding and soooooo much better. was so badly peed off with these people, DC cant help her outbursts, shes not a badly behaved child at all,and there were others in her class who would repeatedly hit teachers yet they were never excluded.

ooh, you've hit a nerve there OP, i really feel for you. hope you have better luck.....oh look, a flying pig.....

agree with agnes i should have cited disability discrimination which i didnt know I couyld do at the time and now DC has this on her record for life, like shes a bloody criminal.

Yes,I think that disability discrimination route may be the way to go.They'll have to send a reply to Sendist presumably.
One of the reasons given for exclusion was repeatedly failing to do 'x' which he had extreme difficulty doing because of his disability. He had had a target to do 'x' but this was removed as his target before he was excluded due to 'improvements made' (have documentary evidence of this) so can't see how they can justify that as a reason . Also, after making a request for school records, vital paperwork relating to the exclusion was not supplied. This paperwork had to exist or they couldn't have made the decision so where is it? This is another thing that I have asked the Gov's for but none of this seems forthcoming so that wouldn't look good at tribunal for them I suppose. Quite a few other things that they should have done weren't done and I've got a fair bit of evidence.
I know,it's grim, Marj