Parent Councils
Through the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement Act) 2006,
every parent/carer is automatically a member of the Parent Forum at
their child's school. As such, they have a say in who will
represent them. The Act introduced a new system of
parent representation in schools (Parent Councils) which
has replaced School Boards and Parent Groups.
The aims for the new Parent Councils are:
- the opportunity for more parents to get involved in ways that
suit them
- to focus on parents' own issues, concerns and priorities
- increased rights to information
- greater partnership between parents and schools
One of the key roles of Parent Councils is to represent the
views of parents to the school and to the Authority. They have a
duty to ensure that the views they give us are truly
representative. We will ask for views in a number of different ways
to give parents and pupils a say on school and on authority issues
and the decisions we make. Examples of how we can continue to
encourage and support Parent Councils include:
- providing specific help to establish new Parent Councils
- training for Parent Council members to enable them to fulfill
their role
- funding for Parent Councils
- consulting with parents in various ways on school and authority
issues
We will normally seek your views through your school's Parent
Council, and we have established representative bodies of the
Parent Councils we can also consult with:
- Chairpersons' Group - all Chairpersons of Parent Councils are
invited to attend at least two meetings a year with the Head of
Education Services and members of the Senior Management Team,
Education & Children's Services. Other meetings will be
arranged to discuss specific topics, such as consultation
issues.
- Focus Group - a cross-sector representational group of Parent
Council members will meet in a consultative role with the Head of
Education Services and Senior Managers in Education &
Children's Services at least twice a year.
Our
Parental Involvement Strategy[pdf 2.3MB] and
Parents as Partners Leaflet [pdf 2.7MB] give more details on
Parent Councils and our approach to supporting and encouraging
parental involvement.
Disclosure Scotland Checks - Parent Council Members
In general, disclosure checking may not be necessary for Parent Council members unless they have
unsupervised access to children. The 'Safe and Well' handbook offers guidance
for schools and education authorities on disclosure checks.
Occasional or one-off involvement in school activities may not
require a disclosure check, particularly where other adults
supervising children are disclosure checked. It is for
education authorities and schools to decide which individuals are
regarded as being in a child care position as defined by the
Protection of Children (Scotland) act 2003 and for whom a
disclosure check would be required. The SPTC has produced an
advice leaflet for PTAs and PAs which has Scottish Government and
Central Registered Body in Scotland (CRBS) approval - see http://www.sptc.info/. This advice is
relevant to Parent Councils in the same way.
Perth & Kinross Council endorses the approach set out
nationally. It is imperative that appropriate risk
assessments are undertaken to identify activities which would
require disclosure checks for parents to be undertaken. There
is no requirement for disclosure checks to be undertaken for every
parent who may be involved in school activities unless a specific
risk is identified with the risk assessment.
Parent Representatives on Lifelong Learning Committee
We now have both Primary Sector and Secondary Sector
representatives on the the
Lifelong Learning Committee. Part of the remit of
the Committee is to approve key policies and guidance for our
schools and it is therefore pivotal to the provision of
education in Perth & Kinross.
Should you wish to raise anything with either of the parent
representatives in relation to Committee business, please email the
address given below and your enquiry will be forwarded on.
Please specify which sector representative you wish to
contact.
ecsschools@pkc.gov.uk
