Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many complaints relating to schools have been lodged from July 2020 to April 2021.

Between 1 July 2020 and 30 April 2021, the Department received approximately 3,039 written complaints about schools. This total is made up of 1,714 complaints related to local authority maintained schools, 1,093 related to academies and free schools, and 232 related to independent schools.

The Department’s National Helpline received 2,882 calls relating to complaints about schools between 25 August 2020, when the Department introduced new call handling software, and 30 April 2021. We no longer hold the data that predates 25 August 2020. There were 2,215 related to local authority maintained schools, 566 about academy and free schools, and 101 related to independent schools.