IStip aims to provide a high quality, responsive and professional service to schools. We take any issues or concerns raised by our schools extremely seriously and endeavour to deal with these effectively, and informally in the first instance. Should this prove impossible, the following policy sets out a formal complaints procedure for schools.

Process

A formal complaint against the Company or its staff (in writing or by telephone) will be acknowledged within 7 working days.

IStip will not accept anonymous complaints. The initial response from IStip will seek the following acknowledgements:

1. That the complainant has read and understood this policy
2. That they understand the statutory remit of IStip, and its limitations in terms of responding to a complaint
3. That complaints, including details of the complainant will be kept of file for 6 years, and that details of the complaint and complainant will be shared with the relevant parties mentioned in this policy.

A written response to the complaint will be made within 3 working weeks, even if the issue requires further investigation by the Company. During that time, every effort will be made to gather relevant information, and request further clarification from the complainant where necessary. In some cases, a follow-up response from IStip may be necessary.

In the first instance, complaints, together with details of the resolution sought, should be sent to the Executive Director, Judith Fenn, unless the complaint is made against her, in which case, to the Chair of Panel, Claire Robinson. Full contact details may be found below.

Should the response of the Executive Director prove unsatisfactory to the complainant, there are 2 further stages to the process which may be followed:

1. Contact with the relevant Panel association representative
2. Contact with the Chair of Panel

Should the complaint be against the Executive Director and/or the Chairs of Board or Panel, a sub set of directors and an external representative from the ISC Board will be convened to investigate.

In each case, complaints should be in writing, and should include any previous responses from IStip. An acknowledgement of the complaint will be made within 7 working days, and a response given within 3 working weeks, unless it is felt the complaint should be discussed by a full session of the Panel/Board/Special Convening of Directors and independent representative, in which case the complainant will be informed of when this is likely to be, and when a response will be made. If full resolution is still not achieved, the matter will be referred to the full Board .

All formal complaints will be brought to the attention of the Panel (in matters of statutory induction) and the Board.

Quality Assurance Reports – complaints

IStip is happy to amend any and all factual inaccuracies in a report sent to a school. If the complaint concerns the findings, actions or recommendations contained within the report, IStip will investigate the matter within the timeframe above, and if necessary, will send in a second QA Officer to the school to investigate further the issues raised within the complaint.

Contacts

Judith Fenn Executive Director, IStip Uncommon 126-128 New Kings Rd London SW6 4LZ judith.fenn@istip.co.uk

Claire Robinson IStip Chair of Panel Home Grange School Heathlands Road Wokingham RG40 3AL c.robinson@holmegrange.org

Jane Carroll IStip Chair of Board GSA Suite 105 108 New Walk Leicester LE1 7EA janecarroll@gsa.uk.com

Further contact details for Association Panel and IStip Board representatives are also available on this website.

Download this policy

You can download a current copy of this complaints policy as a Microsoft Word DOCX document.

Revision history

Agreed by board in March 2012. Reviewed March 2014, December 2016, June 2017, December 2018, and most recently in June 2020.