The service receives a lot of referrals from members of the public which are not about serious misconduct.
The service cannot deal with these referrals. The people making them should instead complain to the school or another organisation such as their local council.
We currently ask members of the public whether they’ve already made a complaint. If they say no then they can continue anyway. We know that:
- 12% of submitted referrals are from users who say they have not made a complaint
- 26% of members of the public who initially say they have not made a complaint go back and change their answer - this includes both submitted and unsubmitted referrals
Although we have not yet done research to find out why users incorrectly make referrals, we think that it’s because they:
- are already in the referrals service, making it easier to continue rather than change to another service
- can see a clear route to referring a teacher, whereas there are several ways to make a complaint
- do not understand the difference between referrals and complaints
- believe that they should make a referral as an ‘escalation’ if their complaint has not been upheld
We decided to:
- make it clearer that referrals can only be used where there has been serious misconduct
- give examples of other organisations which users can complain to in addition to the school
- ask whether users want to make a complaint or a referral
- give routes for users to continue with a complaint
Most of the changes are to the journey for members of the public. We also made a small change to a page seen by employers.
What we’ve changed for members of the public
We made changes so that we:
- no longer ask whether the user has made a complaint
- ask the user to check if they should make a complaint or a referral
- give routes for users to make a complaint
- no longer ask users to check that their allegation involves serious misconduct
- clarify what will happen after the user makes a referral
No longer asking whether the user has made a complaint
We’ve removed the question asking whether the user has already “made a complaint to the school, school governors or your local council”.
We did this because the question:
implied that if the user has made a complaint to one of the mentioned organisations then they do not need to make a further complaint gave the impression that a referral for misconduct is a way to escalate after making a complaint
Asking the user to check if they should make a complaint or a referral
Instead of asking whether the user has made a complaint, we now ask them to check if they should make a complaint or refer the teacher for serious misconduct.
The content of this page:
- gives examples of serious misconduct
- says that a teacher may be prevented from teaching for life if they’re found guilty of serious misconduct
- says that a referral will not be investigated if it’s for something which is not serious misconduct
- tells the user that they should make a complaint instead if the allegation is not about serious misconduct
There are radio buttons allowing the user to choose to either
- make a complaint - the hint text gives examples of organisations which the user could complain to
- refer serious misconduct - the hint text repeats the fact that the teacher could be prevented from teaching for life
Giving routes for users to make a complaint
If the user says that they want to make a complaint, they’re taken to a page with links to:
- GOV.UK guidance about making a complaint
- the start page for making a complaint to the DfE
The guidance about making a complaint to schools or other organisations is complicated because it depends on the type of school and what they’re complaining about.
We’ve decided to give only a small amount of information and let users find out more on GOV.UK. We tell users that:
- every school in England must have a complaints policy
- they may be able to complain to other organisations such as their local council, depending on the type of school and what they’re complaining about
- they may be able to complain to the DfE
We’ve included a green button linking to the DfE complaints process because we can clearly set out the conditions for people to use the process. Since there’s an online service, we can give users a clear onward journey from the page.
No longer asking users to check that their allegation involves serious misconduct
We’ve removed the page later in the journey which asked users to check that their allegation involves serious misconduct.
This is now covered by the new page asking them to decide between making a complaint or referral.
Clarifying what will happen after the user makes a referral
We’ve made changes to the page which users see if they say they want to make a referral.
We rearranged the page so that it starts by telling users what information we’ll share with the teacher and their employer. Previously it started with the possible consequences for the teacher, which had already been mentioned.
What we’ve changed for employers
We do not ask employers whether they’ve made a complaint. We do not expect them to complain about their own school to the local council or another organisation.
We’ll continue to ask employers whether their allegation is about serious misconduct.
Since the service launched, no employer has ever answered ‘no’ to that question. But we’ve improved the content they’ll see if they do answer ‘no’.
Previously the content mentioned complaining to the school or council, which was not relevant to employers. We’ve simplified the content.
Further considerations
We want to simplify the language used within the service. In particular we’d like to use simpler terms instead of ‘prevented’ and ‘prohibition’. We plan to find out about how well users understand the service through user research.
We also want to review the employer journey. It may not be necessary to ask employers whether they’re referring the teacher for serious misconduct, since they never answer ‘no’.