Jess Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many written complaints her Department received about academy brokers in each year since 2010.

Edward Timpson

All of the contractors offering specialist educational advice are now defined as ‘Education Advisers’. Some of the Education Advisers work as academy brokers but may undertake other functions. All complaints made against Education Advisers have been recorded centrally since June 2011.

Since then, the Department has received 13 written complaints in total. Investigations have been concluded and resolved to the Department’s satisfaction; the majority were found to be without basis.

In each case the complainant was given feedback on the investigation and was informed of how they could pursue their complaint further if they were not satisfied with the outcome. In two cases, complaints were partially upheld; and another was upheld.

Providing further information about the nature of the complaints, and the grounds on which they were partially or fully upheld, would risk identifying individual cases and therefore jeopardise the confidentiality afforded to the complainant and subject, and be prejudicial to the effective conduct of public affairs.