Decision Report 201303702

Summary

Mr C's daughter was not making the required progress on her college course and was transferred to part-time attendance. Mr C complained that the college had not taken action to resolve the academic difficulties she was having. The college investigated and did not uphold his complaint. Mr C considered that the college had not dealt adequately with his complaint when the college decided that his daughter had not made successful progress on part-time attendance to continue her studies. He said that when he asked how to appeal this, he was given conflicting information and told that he had exhausted the internal procedures.

We upheld Mr C's complaint, as our investigation found that, although the college had carried out a proportionate investigation, made a reasonable decision about his daughter's progress, and had tried to support her in her studies, they had not handled his complaint well. Neither had they clearly communicated with him in terms of the complaints procedure and other information.

Recommendations

We recommended that the college:

• apologise to Mr C for not adequately handling his complaint; and
• share our decision letter with relevant staff.