Catholic Schools NSW is not responsible for the day to day running of Catholic Schools in NSW.

The Catholic Schools Office in the Diocese in which the child’s school is located is responsible for the day to day running of the school.

Complaints that relate to a child attending a Catholic School in NSW must be referred directly to the child’s school by following the procedure outlined in the school complaints policy which is located on the school website.

Schools are responsible for managing complaints relating to enrolment, attendance, school fees, bullying, wellbeing and child protection and we are unable to take complaints relating to these areas.

Parental complaints which have not been satisfactorily resolved by the school must be directed to the relevant Catholic Schools Office. You can find contact details of the relevant Catholic Schools Office by clicking on this link. 

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction made to an organisation related to its functions, services, or the complaints handling process itself, where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected.
You can make a complaint by
– Completing a feedback form on our website https://www.csnsw.catholic.edu.au/
– Telephoning us on 1800 427 679
– Writing to us at GPO Box 34, Sydney NSW 2000
– Emailing us at [email protected]

If we receive your complaint verbally and we consider it appropriate, we may ask you to put your complaint in writing.

When we are investigating your complaint, we will be relying on information provided by you. In some circumstances, we may also hold some information in relation to your complaint. We may need to contact you to clarify details or request additional information where necessary. To help us investigate your complaint quickly and efficiently we will ask you for the following information:

• Your name and contact details;
• The name of the person you have been dealing with regarding the subject of your complaint;
• The nature of the complaint;
• Details of any steps you have taken to resolve your complaint;
• Details of conversations you may have had with us that may be relevant to your complaint;
• Copies of any documentation which supports your complaint.

You may also make a complaint anonymously. This may delay the resolution of your complaint or the extent to which we are able to investigate.
The person receiving or managing your complaint will provide you with any assistance you may need to make your complaint.

When taking a complaint, we will record your name and contact details. We will also record all details of your complaint including the facts and the cause/s of your complaint, the outcome and any actions taken following the investigation of your complaint. We will also record all dates and times relating to actions taken to resolve the complaint and communications between us.

As part of our on-going improvement plan, complaints will be monitored for any identifying trends and rectification/remedial action taken to mitigate any identified issues.

If you lodge a complaint, we will record your personal information solely for the purposes of addressing your complaint. If you require further information on how we manage your personal information please refer to our Privacy Policy.

Catholic Schools NSW is committed to resolving your issues at the first point of contact; however, this will not be possible in all circumstances, in which case a more formal complaints process will be followed.

We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within three (3) business days. Once your complaint has been received, we will undertake an initial review of your complaint.

There may be circumstances during the initial review or investigation of your complaint where we may need to clarify certain aspects of your complaint or request additional documentation from you. In such circumstances, we will explain the purpose of seeking clarification or additional documentation and provide you with feedback on the status of your complaint at that time.

We are committed to resolving your complaint within 10 business days of you lodging your complaint, however, this may not always be possible on every occasion. Where we have been unable to resolve your complaint within 10 business days, we will inform you of the reason for the delay and specify a date when we will be able to finalise your complaint.

During the initial review or investigation stage, we may need to seek further clarification or documentation from you to assist us in resolving your complaint. If we are waiting on you to provide this information, we may not be able to meet our 10-business day finalisation commitment. Upon receipt of your clarification or additional documentation we will indicate to you when we expect to be able to finalise your complaint.

Once we have finalised your complaint, we will advise you of our findings and any action we have taken. We will do this in writing, unless it has been mutually agreed that we can provide it to you verbally. You have the right to make enquiries about the current status of your complaint at any time by contacting us.

To access our complete policy on procedures and the handling of external complaints, please click here.