Complaints
At Dalziel, we aim for the highest in all that we do. Sometimes, though, you may feel that you have a concern that you wish to raise. We follow North Lanarkshire Council Complaints Guidelines, a copy of which is available from our School Office. In addition to these, we have our own comprehensive Complaints and Concerns Policy. This policy states that if you contact us with a concern - either by telephone, email, visit, or letter - we will investigate your concern and inform you by telephone of our findings and actions within 2 working days, or by letter within 3 working days.
If you phone us, it is our stated objective that we answer your call within 5 rings, and if you write to us and include a contact phone number, to call within 48 hours, or reply to your letter within 1 week. We will monitor this Monthly, and will publish our findings on the website. You can also use the School Website to contact us directly, and we aim to respond to your email within 48 hours.
In addition to this, we would also like to hear from you if you wish to praise an initiative we are undertaking, or an individual pupil for their actions, as these are as valid for us as any other form of communication.
How do I register a complaint/concern?
- By phone, stating the nature of your concern and leaving a contact telephone number so that we can return your call.
- By letter, stating the nature of your concern and leaving your address or phone number so that we can contact you.
- By visit, stating at the School Office the nature of your concern and - where possible - being directed to the relevant member of the Senior Management Team.
What happens next?
We will investigate your complaint/concern, and then contact you within the specific timescale to outline our findings and actions.
What actions do we take?
These depend on our findings, and have in the past involved special Year Group Assemblies where we discuss an issue to all involved. We have also included lessons in PSHE where particular concerns have been addressed. Individual staff have spoken with Parents about issues, and staff have discussed concerns that have been raised. Should disciplinary action be required, we follow North Lanarkshire Council's and our own discipline policy recommendations. Actions taken are dependent on circumstances and evidence collation.
What if I am unhappy with the action taken?
Please contact us to let us know of your concerns. Hopefully this will not happen, as we will do our best to explain why a particular course of action has been taken. This is clearly outlined in North Lanarkshire Council's Guidelines, which are available from the School Office.
Complaints Monitoring
Although we do our very best at all times, regrettably, we still receive a number of complaints/concerns every month. We are very open about these, because - as a School - we recognise that we are the major focal point of the Community, and as such we take our responsibilities to you very seriously. We publish figures for the complaints/concerns we receive each month, as we believe that being open and frank assists us in our future developments.
As part of our ongoing commitment to self-evaluation and improvement, we have decided to undertake a programme of calling our "customers" to ascertain if they were satisfied with the actions taken by the school.
- We value your input and look forward to taking your suggestions further.
- We will rate your response on a scale of 1-6 - with 1 being unhappy and 6 being excellent.
- We will phone approximately 10 people each month who raised concerns with the School.
If you remain unsatisfied with how your concern has been handled by the School and North Lanarkshire Council, you have the right to refer it onwards to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman can be contacted at:
SPSO
Freepost EH641
Edinburgh EH3 0BR
Telephone: 0800 377 7330
Fax: 0800 377 7331
Email: