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The Development of a New National Parent Body
The Current Circumstances
18. A dual system of local parental involvement has existed in Scotland for many years. Parent teacher associations and parents associations are long standing means of fostering contact between schools and parents to the benefit of schools and children's education. With the introduction of school boards in 1988 with their prescribed functions, parent teacher associations usually became more focused on fund raising activities.
19. This dual local arrangement is echoed at national level by two parent bodies, the Scottish Parent Teacher Council ( SPTC), with PTAs and other parents' groups as members and the Scottish School Board Association ( SSBA) with school boards as members.
20. The promotion of Parent Councils is changing this picture. The implementation of the new legislation is being seen in two different ways at local authority level. Where Parent Councils are seen as straight replacements for school boards, the dual local arrangements seem set to continue in most cases, at least for the time being. Where Parent Councils are understood and promoted as a more flexible and inclusive approach to local parent involvement, they are often replacing both school boards and PTAs. Over time, the dual nature of local parental involvement may become less common and gradually wither.
21. Aside from their different membership bases, the two current national parent bodies have strongly overlapping roles in representing and supporting parents and their local organisations. Each has its own style of operation and there is little evidence that they work together. At the time of writing, they are separately preparing to recruit Parent Councils into membership, highlighting their roles and services to members. Stakeholders involved in education policy and practice at local authority and national levels have suggested that the dual arrangements for parent representation in the future would lack credibility.
22. Among those involved in local parents' groups at present, there appears to be limited interest in participation at national level.
A Single National Parent Body in the Future
23. Organisations representing education policy makers and practitioners strongly support the emergence of a single national body for the future. Among survey respondents, almost universal support exists for the emergence of one national parent body. Both current national bodies agree with the proposition that only one national body is needed in the future, but have their own perceptions of its realisation.
24. The development of a future national body, controlled by parents, ought to have parents at the forefront of any processes to bring it about. The following are considered essential features of the process:
- The continuing involvement of experienced parents
- The attraction of parents not previously involved
- Wide debate taking place on options
- Greatly increased parent interest in the national picture, with a sufficient pool of interested parents to lead the work
- A process open to interested parents throughout, with regular efforts made to reach more parents and ascertain their views and preferences
- The focus of effort directed to the needs of parents in the future
- Resources made available to support the process.
25. A majority of survey respondents (58%) wanted to see the current two national bodies work together to form a single national body for the future. A further 25% preferred to see a fresh start made to set up something new. Little support (14%) emerged for either SPTC or SSBA to go forward on its own as the national parent body for the future.
26. The circumstances in which the two existing national bodies came into existence and operated are quite different from the new parental involvement environment now opening up. Reflecting developments at school and local authority level, any future national body should take a leading role in promoting parental involvement in children's learning. This will require a more substantial scale of operation than exists at present. Any evolution of either of the existing national bodies into a single national body for the future would entail a radical change from the scale and character of their current operation, and is a poorly supported option.
27. It was not possible to bring SPTC and SSBA together during this facilitation to explore areas of consensus or difference on the shape and character of a national parent body for the future. There appears to be no imminent prospect of the two bodies working together, despite a majority of survey respondents wanting to see the pursuit of this course.
28. From the foregoing considerations, it is recommended that an entirely new national body is set up by interested parents, in which newly interested parents would have the same status and form of involvement as those parents associated with either of the existing bodies. The aim behind the recommendation is to ensure that any new national body focuses fully on the future and parents' wishes, needs and views. Ministers are asked to support this approach and the recommendations which follow to realise it.
Possible Roles for a Future National Parent Body
29. There is broad consensus about the main roles of a national body for the future in terms of representing parent opinion, supporting local parents' organisations and advising individual parents. In the survey findings the first two roles were considered to be the most important. A future national body ought to consider carefully the scale of its role in advice to individual parents. A comprehensive approach would create a considerable undertaking. It may be unnecessary to duplicate existing alternative sources of advice for parents available both locally and nationally, even although not controlled by parents.
30. In contrast, no consensus emerged about a future national parent body incorporating the provision of public liability insurance into its role. On one hand insurance provision might be valued by a national body to attract membership and boost income, and on the other be felt to obscure real levels of support for and engagement with a national body. This is an issue for a new national body to resolve given these strong but opposing considerations.
Promoting Parent Interest in the National Scene
31. Increasing the degree of involvement of parents at national level presents a major challenge, but one which must be addressed for the successful emergence of a national parent body fit for purpose in the future. The continuing promotion of parental involvement at local level must be integrated with the stimulation of interest in the national scene.
32. There are some very promising developments in parental involvement at local authority wide level. It may at first be seen by parents as more remote from school and the immediate interests of their own children, but it does offer scope for dialogue with education policy makers and practitioners, who make decisions affecting the education of children across a whole local authority area. These developments provide a vital stepping stone to considerably increased parent interest in the national scene and the capacity to take part effectively. It is therefore recommended that, where this practice has not yet been developed, local authorities consider ways to promote parental involvement at authority level in future.
33. Promotional activity at local authority level would need to be increased to include discussion about the need for a national parent body for the future and its shape and character. Parts of this report may be found useful in this regard. Such work could be complemented by stimulating discussion about children's learning related to national educational policy developments.
34. It is recommended that Ministers make resources available for a limited period to create a small team with appropriate skills and a remit to promote parent interest in taking part at national level. A flexible option for building up this team might be the 'Field Team' model used already by the Scottish Executive during the promotion and implementation of the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006. This model provided a core resource, whose size could be varied depending on the specific tasks required at any given time.
35. It is recommended that local authorities support the work of this national team by integrating some of their local parental involvement activities with its work. Where no parental involvement activity is being generated at local authority level, the national team could consider setting up reference groups to provide this intermediate step between school and national levels.
36. It matters a great deal how parental involvement is promoted and supported. In the current phase of initial promotion of Parent Councils, the most positive results correspond to the use of recognised community development techniques.
37. The community development approach would embrace all activities which help local parents' organisations and individuals taking part in them to develop their knowledge and skills in the task. For example it could include information and advice, learning opportunities in effective group working, team building, communication/interpersonal skills, knowledge of education policy options, explorations of creative ways to contribute to children's learning jointly with schools and reflection on broader issues relating to the overall well being of children.
38. Examples of current good practice in community engagement and support already exist within local authorities. Not all local authorities apply this approach to the area of parental involvement, but where they do, greatest progress can be seen. More widespread use of community development support would facilitate more innovative approaches to joint work between parents and schools towards enriching children's learning experiences.
39. The proposed national team, as it undertakes its work, should form a demonstration of community development techniques.
Forming A National Parent Body Steering Group
40. The formation of a steering group would follow from the promotion of parent interest already described. Once sufficiently widespread interest has been established among parents, a national parents' conference is suggested to consider issues and options and establish the steering group.
41. In addition to conference invitations to all Parent Councils and PTAs, the event should also be promoted specifically among parents active at local authority level and in any reference groups established. Particular effort should also be made to encourage under represented groups of parents to take part.
42. Appendix Two of this report could be used in the conference to help tease out the various issues and options regarding role, membership, governance, independence, capacity and financing.
43. It is difficult to predict in advance how many parents would wish to take part in a steering group, but beyond 25 members, it could become unwieldy. Should interest exceed this number, an approach could be taken that devolves specific tasks among sub-groups, for example to work on the following
- Drafting memorandum and articles of association (if a company limited by guarantee) or a constitution (if a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation)
- Considering capacity required and resources, and
- Considering ways for a national body to engage with wider parent opinion and education policy makers and practitioners.
44. Ministers are recommended to fund part time development and administrative support for a steering group and the legal advice it will need. Initially an 8 month period should be allowed, with the option of a 4 month extension into the early life of a newly created body to allow it time to appoint its own staff. The steering group would also have to have access to legal advice on constitutional, employment and certain organisational matters. It is further recommended that bodies such as Learning and Teaching Scotland ( LTS), the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland ( ADES), the Scottish Network for Parental Involvement in Children's Learning ( SNPICL) and the Scottish Executive offer early engagement with the steering group to explore mutual expectations and ways to enable parents to take part in policy reviews and developments during their full course.
45. It is vital that the steps taken towards the formation of a new national parent body and its emerging shape and character reflect the wishes of interested parents. It is also vital that the steering group operates independently from the Scottish Executive and that parents involved at all levels lead the process of deciding on their new arrangements. For this reason staff facilitating the work of the steering group should be chosen by the steering group itself. The same would apply to sourcing legal advice.
46. From the point that a new body is established, it would have an independent existence, develop according to its own perceptions of its needs and form relationships with other stakeholders in children's learning.
SPTC and SSBA in The Process
47. It is implicit in the process described above that all interested parents taking part should have the same status in it. Parents should be encouraged to bring their own knowledge and expertise to the process rather than be selected to represent the views of any one organisation. It is recommended that SPTC and SSBA encourage their parent board members to become involved on this basis. The two bodies should also consider how their current staffs and resources could contribute to the process.
48. It is also recommended that SPTC and SSBA explore options for promoting consensus on the way forward for a national parent body for the future. This should include considering marketing membership jointly, making clear the interim nature of this. Joint marketing would essentially mean offering options to join one, the other or both organisations. Membership of both could be offered at subscription levels at a sum less than that of individual memberships, made possible by larger numbers of members.
49. Alongside the main recommendations of this report, Ministers are encouraged to consider any jointly presented proposal from SPTC and SSBA for an alternative process leading to the formation of a new national parent body. If Ministers are minded to follow this course, they should make clear that any proposal could only be considered if it complied with the essential features of a satisfactory process listed at paragraph 24 above.
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