Anyone can complain about a Licensed Education Counsellor, but you can never complain about an unlicensed education Counsellor. You do not need to be the person who received the education counselling advice, to be able to complain.

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 to explain why
• Refer the complaint to the Licensed Education Counsellor Complaint and Disciplinary Tribunal (this tribunal is not operated by the Ministry of Justice or any other government agency and does not charge any fees).

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 (this tribunal is not operated by the Ministry of Justice or any other government agency and does not charge any fees).

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.

If we refer your complaint to the Tribunal, you cannot appeal the decision that the Tribunal makes. The only right of appeal is for the Licensed Education Counsellor that the complaint is about, who may appeal against any sanctions imposed.

Making an anonymous complaint

You cannot be anonymous when making a complaint. The Licensed Education Counsellor will be informed that you have made a complaint about them.

If we refer your complaint to the Licensed Education Counsellor Complaint and Disciplinary Tribunal and you do not want your name or any details identifying you published, you can request anonymity for the record.

Withdrawing a complaint

After you make a complaint against a Licensed Education Counsellor, you cannot withdraw it.

We must consider your complaint and make a determination. This may include referring the complaint to the Licensed Education Counsellor Complaint and Disciplinary Tribunal.

Trivial or inconsequential matters

We may determine that a complaint discloses only a trivial or inconsequential matter about a Licensed Education Counsellor and that we do not need to pursue it.

When determining what is a trivial or inconsequential matter, we’ll consider:

• the consequences (or lack thereof) of the Licensed Education Counsellor’s misconduct for the complainant, particularly any financial loss or adverse admission outcome
• whether the misconduct by the Licensed Education Counsellor was deliberate or through error/carelessness
• the Licensed Education Counsellor’s response to the situation that gave rise to the complaint, and whether they rectified the issue at the time
• whether the misconduct is of a technical/administrative nature
• whether the outcome of the matters would have been similar if the misconduct had not happened
• any mitigating factors for the Licensed Education Counsellor’s misconduct, such as health issues or matters that the Licensed Education Counsellor could not have reasonably foreseen
• previous decisions by the Licensed Education Counsellor Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal on similar misconduct
• the length of time since the events in the complaint happened.