Complaints Handling Guide
Servite College welcomes feedback from all members of the College community and responds to complaints promptly and thoroughly.
About the program
Complaints Handling Program
The College is committed to handling complaints effectively and efficiently. Our Complaints Handling Program aligns with:
- National Catholic Safeguarding Standards, Standard 6: Effective complaints management; and
- National Principles for Child Safe Organisations Principle 6: Processes for complaints and concerns are child-focused
We have established an online complaints management system which enables us to record, manage and analyse complaints, supporting continuous improvement at the College.
When handling complaints, the College ensures that reporting, record keeping, privacy and employment law obligations are met.
Confidentiality is respected and maintained – information is only shared with those who need to know.
How to Make a Compliant
This guide is designed to assist you in understanding how to make a complaint
What Is A Complaint?
A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction made to Servite College related to our services or operations or the complaints handling process itself, where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected. All complaints will be handled seriously.
Resolving Your Concerns
The vast majority of issues causing concern in schools can be handled quickly and in an informal manner. The Principal, senior staff and teachers are available to discuss and resolve concerns promptly.
We therefore ask that, where appropriate, you first raise your concern directly with the relevant staff member.
How Do I Make A Formal Complaint?
If you have been unable to resolve a matter informally or simply wish to make a formal complaint, you can do so by providing your feedback/details of the complaint via the Complaints Form on our public website.
All formal complaints will be logged into our online complaints management system and managed in accordance with the following procedure.
Child Safety Complaints
Aligned with the Child Safe Framework, child safety related complaints will be handled following CEWA Child Protection Procedures for investigating, reporting and recording complaints, including liaison with external agencies such as WA Police and Department for Child Protection and Family Support.
Servite College staff understand their responsibilities in all forms of child abuse, whether sexual, physical, emotional and/or psychological. When handling complaints, the well-being of the child or young adult is the priority and confidentiality is observed.
Child safety-related complaints include complaints about or allegations of:
- breaches of the Child Safe Codes of Conduct
- child abuse, grooming or other harm of a current or former student by
- current or former staff members
- current or former students
- other people on College premises or at College events
If your complaint is a child safety-related complaint, please register your complaint here.
For information about how the College manages child safety-related complaints, as well as any child safety incidents or concerns at or involving the College or its staff members, please refer to our Child Safety Policies and Statements.
The Role Of The Director General
The Director General of the Department of Education is responsible for ensuring that the College observes the Registration Standards, including the standard about its complaints handling system. Any student, parent or community member is entitled to contact the Director General with concerns about how the College has dealt with a complaint. Information is available on the Department of Education website. While the Director General may consider whether the College has breached the Registration Standards, she does not have the power to intervene in a complaint or override the College’s decision.
Disputes and Complaints Policy
Our community comes to know the love of Jesus through our actions.
Responding to our Servite calling, we strive to nurture our faith through action. As Servites, we recognise that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of our rich community environment. When we see injustice, we know to respond with love, compassion, mercy and courage, aligned with the community modelled by our Seven Holy Founders.
Register a Complaint
Justice is one of the most important virtues a Servite can possess.
Justice calls us to respect the rights of each person and to establish harmonious relationships that promote fairness for people and for the common good of society. As a community, we strive to be responsive to the demands of the world in which we live. Together we continually work to provide the best service we can.
In living our values, we will always seek to hear your grievances and work to resolve issues. Please complete the following form so we can begin this journey together.
