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Appendix 4: Summary of the Scottish Executive Presentation delivered at the Public Consultation Events
Aim of presentation
- To explain purpose of consultation
- To say why change is proposed
- To explain the key proposals; and
- To set out the next steps in the consultation process
Aim of consultation
- Public consultation on draft Bills now a key part of the post-devolution legislative process
- Aim to get a wide range of views from parents in different areas with different experiences and perspectives.
Reasons for change
- To improve parental representation and involvement in schools.
- To release parents from restrictions of School Boards Act 1988 which was designed for a different purpose in a different era eg formal election procedures, restrictions on numbers of parents who can be on a Board (in effect less than 1% of parents at a time).
- To give the 11% of schools which have no school board at all the opportunity to develop a statutory form of representation that's relevant to them and will appeal to their parents.
- To reflect Ministers' approach to education and parental involvement and representation. Government policy is not to be restrictive but to encourage local arrangements which work in different areas.
Context
- Today, policy is to set out a clear national framework of standards and expectations, but allow local freedom and flexibility to deliver.
- Ministers' main focus is on promoting excellence in schools. Government no longer believes that 'we at the centre know best what will work for your school'. Keen to allow more decisions and freedoms at local level. In that context Ministers want to give more prominence to the role of parental involvement in education.
- This is so important because, where parents are actively involved in the school and with their child's education, they get better outcomes for their children. Parental involvement in a child's learning is a key factor in determining their success in life.
- The Bill is just one aspect of the work we are doing to support and encourage all kinds of parental involvement in education. It demonstrates Ministers' recognition of the importance of parents' contribution and a determination to improve and strengthen their involvement.
Earlier consultation and discussion
- The proposals in the draft Bill have emerged over time and through earlier consultations and discussions. Ministers have tested the continuing relevance of the School Boards Act and listened to a wide range of views through the National Debate on Education and subsequent work with parents and stakeholders.
- Executive also held a series of discussions with stakeholders including groups of school board chairs, teachers' unions and organisations like the SSBA, SPTC, Scottish Consumer Council and COSLA.
- Executive commissioned research on parents' views. This actively sought the views of the 'silent majority' of parents who aren't involved formally and feel less comfortable about putting forward their views - parents whose involvement is still vitally important for their own children. It found that the formality of the current system put many parents off and made them less inclined to get involved.
- So the consultation to date has confirmed our belief that the School Boards Act needs to be changed.
New draft Bill
- Focus of new Bill is more about strengthening parental representation and involvement than managing schools. About ensuring that parents' voices are heard better and listened to. Addressing the whole dialogue between schools and parents - focusing on the way authorities consult and engage with parents and the way they are involved in the school.
- The new Bill is about
- allowing greater flexibility locally for parents to shape their own arrangements
- giving new weight to the importance of parental involvement in education today, and
- strengthening parents' rights individually and collectively - rights to be consulted, to be involved in setting up a body to represent their views, to have their voices heard better and to request and receive information relating to the education of their own children.
Key proposals
- The main proposals in the Bill are for:
- A new duty on local authorities to promote parental involvement
- The introduction of more flexible parent forums to replace School Board system
- A guarantee of continuing parental involvement in new appointments procedures for headteachers and deputies; and
- A new duty on local authorities to respond to parents' requests for information about their own child's education - effectively a new right for parents.
New Formal Duties on Local Authorities
- The Bill places a series of new formal duties on local authorities:
- overarching new statutory duty to promote parental involvement which would require each local authority to prepare a Strategy for Parental Involvement in consultation with parents to be reflected in individual school development plans. It would also ensure that authorities promote the establishment and operation of new parent forums. Many local authorities are already very committed and actively encouraging parental involvement but new duty will ensure it's a top priority in every part of Scotland and continues to be in years to come.
- duty to provide information and advice to parents on matters relating to the education of their own child. In practice this should already happen but important to spell out clearly in the Bill.
- duty to have a complaints procedure in place relating to how they carry out their duties under the Bill.
Parent Forums
- If it's important that local Parental Involvement Strategies reflect local needs and local parents' views, the same principle should apply to the bodies which represent parents in schools.
- So Ministers are proposing that the current School Board system be replaced with a more flexible type of representation which gives parents in a school the freedom to decide how their parent forum should be set up. Local Authority assistance and Executive guidance would be available if parents want it. Different schools could have different models and schools would be able to adapt and change.
- The Bill provides for parents in the school to devise and agree a constitution for their parent forum. It is deliberately not prescriptive about operational details - what a parent forum should look like or how many parents can be on it. The Bill sets out a number of functions - these focus more on representing and presenting the views of the wider parent body than on school management functions.
- This is not about starting from scratch - but about building on the best of what we have already and extending opportunities for parents to contribute. If the current format of the school board suits the parent body in a school, they can keep it. But parents would have the option of different forms of representation, the flexibility to try new ideas and the ability to be innovative without an Act of Parliament restricting their options.
- Flexibility does not equate to vagueness in the proposals. The new statutory duties on local authorities provide the guaranteed underpinning support to allow flexibility for parents to determine the form of their representation in the school.
- Proposals do not require the headteacher to be present but allow the parents in a school to decide whether to invite any non-parents. Recognise there are different views on this and have included a specific question in the consultation to draw out opinion.
What happens next?
- Opportunity to contribute views - group discussions will be fed into the consultation, or response can be submitted in writing or online using the response form on the Parentzone website. No need to follow questions - any views are welcome and will be considered carefully.
- The consultation period runs till 7 June. After that, Ministers will consider the responses before deciding how and when to take the draft bill forward. Very unusual for a Bill to go completely unadapted from the consultation draft to first reading in Parliament. So participants and respondents have a very real chance to influence the content of the Bill that goes to Parliament. After that it would be for Parliament to consider and amend the Bill.
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