Anyone can complain about a Licensed Education Counsellor. You do not need to be the person who received the education counselling advice.

If you make a complaint to us at the Authority:

• There is no cost for making a complaint to us
• It will not affect any pending enrollment you have with any New Zealand education provider
• We cannot influence your admission to New Zealand education providers.

What you can complain about

You can complain about a Licensed Education Counsellor on a number of grounds including:
• Dishonest or misleading behaviour
• Negligence
• Incompetence
• Incapacity
• Breaching the Code of Conduct

When you can complain

You can complain about a Licensed Education Counsellor:
• At any time while the advice is being provided
• After they’ve provided the education advice.
If the person is no longer a Licensed Education Counsellor, you must make the complaint within one year of when they stopped being a Licensed Education Counsellor.
You do not need to be in New Zealand when you make the complaint.

What happens after you make a complaint

When we receive and accept your complaint form, we’ll assign an investigator to your complaint.
The investigator may contact you with updates or questions about the complaint.
After the investigation, we’ll decide to either:
• Close the complaint – we’ll send you a letter explain why
• Refer the complaint to the Licensed Education Counsellor Complaint and Disciplinary Tribunal – if the complaint is upheld, sanctions may be imposed such as censure, fines, compensation, further training or a change to the Counsellor’s licence.

How long the complaints process takes

We aim to complete 80% of complaints against Licensed Education Counsellors within 40 working days of receiving them.
This process may take longer depending on both:
• the circumstances of the complaint
• whether we refer the matter to the Licensed Education Counsellor Complaint and Disciplinary Tribunal.
If we refer a complaint to the Tribunal, we have no control over timeframes. The complaint will follow the Tribunal’s processes, which could include a hearing.

Appealing your complaint outcome

If we closed your complaint against a Licensed Education Counsellor, you cannot appeal this decision.