If 2025 was the year in which AI turbocharged the complaints problem for schools, perhaps inserting a dose of humanity back into interactions could ease the issue in 2026.
Complaints from parents, former staff and members of the public had already been on the rise, with two-thirds of respondents to our School Leaders’ Survey in early 2024 saying they had witnessed an increase since the pandemic.
Over the past six to eight months, we have witnessed another surge, this time in AI-generated complaints that are drafted within minutes but take hours of staff time to address.
AI-generated complaints to schools
For example, a parent worried about their child being left out at playtime might generate a three-page letter citing discrimination legislation when a brief conversation with the class teacher would suffice.
Over the following weeks, further, lengthier complaints with sophisticated language can follow.
Complementing these may be subject access requests (SARs) seeking a copy of all personal data being processed by the school or academy trust, letters threatening legal action and freedom of information requests seeking many years of historical data.
This escalation from a simple concern to an overwhelming barrage is characteristic of the trend with AI-generated complaints, which has taken many schools by surprise.
The three Ps that can help to manage the issue
The solution isn’t to resist this technological shift by banning AI-generated complaints or SARs.
Instead, the challenge for schools is how they can harness AI constructively so it enhances, rather than stifles, communication. By providing prompts and frameworks, they can help parents to articulate genuine concerns clearly and proportionately.
We suggest a three-pronged strategic approach to clients:
1. Prevention
With most complaints escalating because they are poorly articulated or badly handled initially, it’s in a school’s interests to help parents to raise concerns constructively before any formal complaint is required.
A five-minute conversation early on can save hours of senior leadership time, while useful tools include template guides covering how parents can raise concerns, parent drop-in sessions, pre-complaint conversation protocols for staff and bespoke communication strategies for vulnerable parent groups.
2. Protection
Building AI literacy for both staff and parents can help schools to manage AI-generated complaints. This can help parents to understand how to use AI tools effectively while proportionately, and staff can understand how to recognise AI “hallucinations” that cite non-existent legislation or incorrect timeframes.
By empowering staff on how to constructively call out use of AI when it creates barriers, it can help to maintain relationships with parents while setting expectations.
3. Process
To handle complaints effectively, schools should begin by investing in the informal stage, when issues can be de-escalated, by providing suitable training on managing complaints.
Specific modules could include how to scope complaints amid the AI “noise”, manage bombardment and endless escalation, and establish desired outcomes.
Policy provisions on AI-generated complaints, perhaps accompanied by standard phrases for responses, can also strengthen a school’s position.
A cultural shift is required
The paradox throughout all of this is that helping parents to complain effectively will often mean fewer formal complaints, not more.
To succeed here, schools need to fundamentally reframe what complaints mean. They’re not attacks to be defended against, but information to be welcomed. They’re not signs of failure, but opportunities for improvement.
This requires training staff to receive concerns positively, celebrating examples where parent feedback led to positive change and measuring success not just by complaint numbers but by early resolution rates and parent satisfaction.
It means senior leaders modelling openness to feedback, rather than defensiveness.
Parents will always have worries about their children. The question is whether schools make it easy to raise those concerns early and informally, or whether barriers and a lack of information and understanding drive parents towards formal, adversarial processes or ineffective use of AI tools.
The schools that thrive aren’t those with the fewest complaints - they’re those where concerns are raised early, handled well and resolved quickly. Helping parents to complain effectively isn’t about encouraging complaints; it’s about channelling inevitable concerns constructively.
is a partner and is a legal director in the education team at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson
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