Compliments and complaints procedure

Compliments and Complaints Procedure: Information for Parents

Thank you for choosing the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF). We look forward to working with you to provide your child with the best possible care and education.

LEYF’s purpose as a social enterprise is to ‘change the world one child at a time’. We recognise that engaging parents in that aim is vital to its success.

It’s well known that children do better when parents and nurseries work together. At LEYF, we will always engage with you, to ensure your views and concerns are reflected in our practice and the services we offer.

We encourage you to tell us about any ideas, opinions or concerns regarding your child’s nursery, in the spirit of a parent partnership.

We are always delighted to receive compliments about your child’s experience with us or your experience of our services. We will always ensure that these are acknowledged and celebrated, so thank you for taking the time to tell us.

This type of feedback reassures us that what we are doing is working, provides a valuable source of evidence for Ofsted and, importantly, helps us to improve.

Of course, we know that not everything goes right all of the time. Your views are just as valuable
when you feel something is not working as when it is, so we will always welcome your suggestions and ideas to improve and enhance our service.

You can give informal feedback at any time to any of our staff. All of our managers have an open door policy, so are always available if you feel you need to discuss something more privately.

We will always seek to resolve concerns by discussing them with you in person. However, if for any reason we are unable to help, and you feel you need to make a formal complaint, please do this either verbally or in writing to the manager or deputy.

They will always follow up and investigate complaints thoroughly and promptly and will make you aware of any actions as soon as possible, whilst maintaining confidentiality.

If you feel you need to raise a specific issue about the manager, a local area operations manager will be available to discuss this with you.

In the event that we are unable to resolve your concerns, you can make a formal complaint to Ofsted. Contact details are displayed in all our nurseries.

Your feedback is genuinely appreciated and we look forward to continuing to work with you and your family.

Making a complaint at LEYF

We want to have a productive dialogue with all of our parents. However, if you do have a concern you need to address or simply something you want to discuss, the following process should help.

Raising a concern

In the first instance, you can raise a concern or give feedback at any time to your child’s key person, a room leader or other staff member.

Speaking to a manager

If an initial dialogue does not fully reassure you or resolve the issue, a manager or deputy will be glad to discuss it with you further.

Complaining formally

If you feel that your concerns have not been fully addressed, you can make a formal complaint to the nursery manager.

This can be verbal, but it is helpful for it to be in writing (either letter or email), so we can fully understand and address all your concerns.

We will acknowledge any formal complaint within 48 hours and outline our intended actions.

Complaining about the manager or escalating a complaint

If your complaint concerns the manager, or if they have been unable to address your concerns to your satisfaction, you can contact our local area operations manager and parent services team at complaints@leyf.org.uk.

Again, they will respond within 48 hours.

Unresolved complaints

We will always strive to resolve all complaints through dialogue with our parents. If you feel we have been unable to do so, you can of course raise a complaint with Ofsted. You can find the details here.