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How to review your staff grievance procedures

Understand how to review your school's staff grievance procedures, including questions you can ask. Save time with our model policy to see what good looks like.

Updated
on 3 May 2024See updates
Ref: 38508
Statutory/mandatory for:
Maintained schools
Academies
Free schools
Independent schools
Sixth-form colleges
Pupil referral units
Non-maintained special schools
Contents
  1. Key facts
  2. What this policy needs to do
  3. 3 key questions to challenge this policy
  4. Take a look at our model policy
  5. Examples from schools and trusts

Key facts

  • This policy is statutory for both maintained schools and academies, along with staff disciplinary procedures and a staff code of conduct – these policies don't have to be separate, and may be presented together
  • As an employer, an academy trust is required by law to set out a grievance procedure and share it in writing with all employees
  • Maintained schools: you must not delegate responsibility for these procedures
  • Academies: you're free to delegate the approval of this policy to an individual or committee
  • It should be reviewed annually
  • The headteacher and senior leadership team (SLT) will write and be responsible for the implementation of this policy

What this policy needs to do

Grievances/complaints/disciplinary – what's the difference?

  • A grievance is a concern, problem or complaint that an employee raises with your school. Learn more in our guidance on staff grievances 
  • A complaint is where a parent/carer, pupil, or anyone else not employed by the school, complains about a matter
  • A disciplinary issue will arise when a staff member has not behaved to the standard expected of them 

Be clear on which policy to use when.

It should cover:

  • What a grievance is and when the policy should, and shouldn't, be used
  • How your school will deal with grievances fairly
  • How employees should raise grievances, including:
    • That the employee should aim to resolve the grievance informally first
    • Procedures to raise the grievance formally, including what to do if the grievance is about the headteacher
  • How your school will investigate a grievance, including: 
    • Who will conduct the investigation
    • How long it will take
  • The grievance hearing, including:
    • Who will be involved and the time frame 
    • The employee's right to be accompanied by a companion, and who this companion can be
  • How your school will communicate the decision to the employee
  • The employee's right to appeal the decision, and how they should do this
  • How your school will keep any records 

3 key questions to challenge this policy

1. What's changed in this most recent update, and why? 

Your policy should be in line with these key bits of guidance:

If there have been updates to any of these documents, you’ll need to check that your school leaders have made sure the policy reflects the latest version.

Your school might also have updated the policy in response to any recent grievances, or new best practice guidance your school leaders have learned through their professional development activities.

2. How do you know your grievance procedures are clear, fair and cover everything they need to?

Your school leaders could explain that they've:

  • Consulted staff while developing the policy to make sure it's clear
  • Carried out staff training about how and when to use the policy
  • Recently updated the policy to make it clearer
  • Used a policy checklist (e.g. from The Key Leaders) to make sure the document covers everything
  • Worked with or had the procedures reviewed by an HR specialist

3. How will we know this policy is working and that it's being properly implemented?

Your school leaders should be able to explain:

  • Key objectives of the policy and how they'll measure success
  • How implementation will be monitored and reported

MATs: further questions for trustees and local governors

 

Further questions

See more questions to ask when reviewing all policies and our article covering how to review a trust-wide policy.

Take a look at our model policy

Choose the model below that's relevant to you.

Model policy for schools

Model trust-wide policy for MATs

 

Your school/trust can choose how to present its grievance procedures

All schools are required to have procedures for addressing staff discipline, conduct and grievances.

Some schools have 1 or 2 documents setting out these procedures in various combinations, and some have separate documents for each.

You need procedures for all 3 topics to meet your statutory obligations, but nothing dictates how they must be presented.

To keep things simple, we have separate articles for each procedure. See also:

Examples from schools and trusts

Primary schools

Secondary schools

Trusts