Cockle Bay School

• Dealing with complaints

POLICY ON DEALING WITH COMPLAINTS REFERRED TO
BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Rationale:    From time to time complaints may be received from caregivers or others regarding procedures or specific happenings at the school which, after having gone through the normal complaints procedure with firstly the staff member involved then the Team Leader and/or Principal, are referred to the Board of Trustees for further action.

Purpose:    To ensure that any complaints received by the Board are dealt with in a fair and procedurally correct manner, endeavouring to ensure that matters are resolved to all parties' satisfaction, either concluded or an understanding in place for future action.

Guidelines:    The complaints procedure for the Board of Trustees of Cockle Bay School is as follows:

Letter of complaint is acknowledged by the Chairperson and the complainant advised of the next steps in the Board process.  The letter becomes part of the correspondence that will be dealt with at the next Board meeting at a "public excluded" section.

Letter is tabled at Board meeting and referred to relevant parties for reporting back to the Board.  The Board decides whether to deal with the matter as a whole or appoint a committee to investigate and recommend to the Board.

At the meeting of the Board Committee the reports are received and the parties may be invited to speak to their complaint or answer questions.  The Board Committee considers the evidence and/or information and comes to a decision or recommendation.

The Board (or Committee if so delegated responsibility) comes to a resolution as to how the Board will respond and/or what action will be taken.

The Board's response is communicated to the parties to the complaint.

Any of the parties may request the Board to reconsider their decision - however normally for such a reconsideration to take place, new information that would have been relevant to the Board's deliberations must be produced.

Cockle Bay School Board Of Trustees Process

1.    Issues of a serious nature eg. allegations of physical abuse, may require a special meeting of the Board to be called.

2.    All letters addressed to the Chairperson of the Board are for the whole Board.
The Chairperson cannot decide independently as to what action will be taken.

3.    Resolution or dismissal of the complaint must not be discussed before all the information is to hand.

4.    The Board must exercise caution when dealing with complaints regarding staff particularly in relation to confidentiality and processes to ensure the principles of natural justice are met.

5.    The Board recognises that not all complainants will be satisfied with the outcome of a complaint.  After one reconsideration, if the Board is confident of its decision it will refuse to enter into further discussion or correspondence.

6.    A complaint regarding lack of compliance in relation to an agreed complaint resolution will be treated as a serious matter and actioned with urgency as a new complaint rather than a reconsideration of a previous issue.