The Browne Jacobson parent behaviour support pack has been designed to support academy trusts and maintained schools to manage unacceptable behaviour from parents of pupils within the school or academy trust community.
This comprehensive pack includes a template parent code of conduct, editable template letters to parents with warnings, communication plans and barring from the school site, along with a range of guidance notes and internal documents and resources to support school staff.
“The pack is excellent and will be very useful for schools and Trusts”
Handling parents’ unacceptable behaviour
Along with a rise in the number of complaints schools are receiving from parents, schools also report an increase in unacceptable behaviour from parents towards school staff. This includes communication in person, by telephone, via email or on social media and takes several forms, including swearing or personal attacks, aggressive or intimidating behaviour, excessive or overly complex correspondence or making covert recordings of staff without consent.
Read our vexatious complaint case study
Protect school staff from harm
Whilst schools should always attempt to address unreasonable behaviour through communication and support, failing to tackle this kind of behaviour effectively sets unrealistic expectations and unclear boundaries for parents and fails to adequately protect staff and others from harm.
We’ve put together this pack to empower schools and trusts to challenge unacceptable behaviour from parents effectively and compliantly. These resources encourage the use of warnings and effective dialogue with parents, before moving to lawful, proportionate and commensurate restrictions on communication and access to school staff where the unacceptable behaviour continues.
How the support pack will help
Our award-winning legal experts have drafted the pack’s supporting materials to:
- Ensure that there is a consistent approach in the measures that are put in place to tackle unacceptable parent behaviour, with all leaders working from the same school policy, templates and internal guidance documents.
- Give you confidence that approach to the management of parent behaviour and letters you use are up to date, legally compliant and reflect best practice.
- Save you time and resource by helping you to ‘get this right’ from the outset.
The parent behaviour support pack includes:
- Template parent code of conduct (SAT, MAT and maintained schools).
- Operational guide and flowchart for internal school use.
- Legal guidance notes and template letters covering:
- Banning a parent from the school site.
- Restricting communication with a parent.
- Inappropriate use of social media.
- Covert recordings.
- Guidance and internal documents for reviewing any bans or restrictions in place.
- FAQs.
Cost
The comprehensive pack of templates and internal resources to support schools to manage unreasonable parent behaviour effectively is £750 plus VAT. Discounts are available for schools and trusts that also purchase our Complaints Management Support Pack.
Key contacts
Victoria Hatton
Senior Associate
Alexandra Robinson
Associate
Vicky Wilson
Senior Associate
You may be interested in...
Online Event
Transforming tensions: A panel discussion on proactive complaints management
Press Release
An interview with HSBC’s ex-commercial manager
On-Demand
School complaints: handling problem parent behaviour
Training
Managing complaints in schools CPD: February 2025 cohort
Press Release
Browne Jacobson’s school leaders survey illustrates rising volume of parental complaints and impact on teachers
Legal Update
OFS Consultation on freedom of speech guidance
Legal Update
New case on the reasonable adjustment duty for pupils in schools
Published Article
Proactive handling of vexatious complaints and abuse of staff in schools
Published Article
Navigating parental complaints in turbulent times
Published Article
Parental complaints surge: how can schools stay afloat?
Legal Update
Are parental complaints to schools undermining staff retention?
Legal Update
Lessons learnt: Handling a vexatious complaint - case study
Legal Update
The role of Ofsted in school complaints
Legal Update
Back to school – prepare to make light work of managing complaints
On-Demand
Best practice complaints management for schools and academy trusts
Legal Update
The Academies regulatory review and school complaints
Legal Update
New support launched to manage school complaints
Legal Update
Complaints management in schools - exploring a new way forward
Opinion
School complaints culture and staff support
In this article we set out some of the support that's available to schools in a bid to reduce the overhead that complaints management generates.
Legal Update
Parental complaints that involve mental health issues
Given the symptoms of mental health problems it is not surprising that they can sometimes seem to evidence themselves in the complaints process. Does this change your approach and how do you deal with parents who appear to exhibit signs of poor Mental Health?
Legal Update
Is your school complaints process fit for purpose?
As part of the advisory service we offer schools, recent enquiries have arisen from academies being contacted by the Department for Education (DfE) about their complaints policies.