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Appendix Two - The Shape and Character of a New National Parent Body

This part of the report provides further detail on the following - discharge of roles, legal form of organisation, membership eligibility, governance, independence, capacity and financing for a new national body for the future. It will be of practical value to parents taking part in forming a new national body as well as other stakeholders whose contributions are crucial to a successful result.

Providing Representation

Education policy makers and providers consulted have drawn attention to expanding opportunities for parents to influence and bring forward their concerns about education. For a national body to be credible with them, any opinions it advances will have to be seen to be well informed and genuinely reflective of the opinions of Scottish parents. This poses two major challenges for a national parent body in future

• The scale of task to provide information, foster debate among parents and gather parent opinion on a routine basis, and
• The likelihood that parent opinion may diverge considerably on many issues.

The contrasting outlooks of a national parent body striving to represent "Scottish parents" as opposed to narrowly representing members' concerns have both been encountered. They lead to differing approaches to the representational role. They would also result in different levels of credibility and influence.

Some recognition exists among those consulted of the need for inclusiveness, particularly of parents who feel ill-equipped to take part in national activity or who feel excluded from current structures. How this might be dealt with has not been explored in this facilitation task. The Scottish Network for Parental Involvement in Children's learning ( SNPICL), Sense Scotland and the Scottish Consumer Council ( SCC) raised this issue and they may be able to offer advice, as well as other organisations with this interest.

These and similar organisations in education encounter parent opinion in their work, but none want to undermine the role of a national parent body in representing parent opinion. They may, however, want to be valued as a source of parent opinion and consulted accordingly.

If the full range of opportunities to promote parent opinion in education is to be taken up by a national parent body, the scale of work must be recognised as beyond the scope of voluntary representatives alone. A considerable contribution would be needed from the body's professional staff and accountability mechanisms would then become important to ensure the authenticity of views advanced.

In undertaking its representational role, a national parent body must decide upon the breadth of issues within its compass. This may be confined to school education policy and practice or extend to a holistic view of children's learning and general wellbeing. Consultees offering views generally felt that a national body should take very a broad interest in children's learning experiences.

Many consultees and survey respondents seek to replicate at national level the highly valued partnerships between parents and educators in evidence at local level. This has implications for the identity and character of a national body. The body is wanted for its ability to represent parents' interests to education policy makers and providers. This requires an organisation fully under parent control where parents have the space to figure out where their interests lie and how to pursue them. However, a body which incorporates education policy makers and practitioners could dilute this. Many parents, however, feel a need to have advice from the latter while deliberating.

Supporting Parents Locally and Nationally

Effective support for parents derives from responsiveness to local need. As touched on earlier (page 8, paragraph 37), development support is also needed to foster parental involvement at both local authority and national levels.

Local promotion of Parent Councils already demonstrates a direct link between development support and the emergence of increased numbers of parents willing to take part. In general, collective parental involvement will depend on adequate ongoing development support.

Support of various styles is supplied by most local authorities to the current school boards. The implementation phase of the parental involvement legislation has seen heightened levels of support for parents as education authorities discharge their duty to promote Parent Councils. Under the new legislation, local authorities will be required to help parents with the operation of Parent Councils.

Provision of development support by local authorities, as long as the role is understood primarily in educational rather than administrative terms, has the strengths of local presence - staff knowing the interested parents, the schools and the authorities' approaches to education policy and delivery. This support would be targeted at parents active at school and local authority level.

A national parent body will need to decide on the scale of development support it wishes to offer subject to available resources. Clearly such support would assist effective parent involvement at national level. It could also be utilised at local level, as a complementary source.

Development support provided by a national parent body may also offer some tangible strengths. These would include

• user control - the type of people using the service also control the service, already a proven model in the voluntary sector
• the potential to become a centre of excellence in the particular skills involved, if sufficient numbers of staff act in this capacity
• offering wider and national perspectives; and
• being independent from education providers.

Complementary inputs from local authorities and a national body would deliver the strengths of each and could be optimised though joint working. This would attract more parents to take part at national level and facilitate parent interest in the wider policy and practice issues upon which a national parent body would advance opinions.

It is recommended that a new national body undertakes to provide development support services to promote national parental involvement. This would complement local authority provision and ensure strong links between local and national parental involvement work. The gains would include the capacity to facilitate discussion on relevant topics and gather parent opinion, prior to the body taking forward parents' views to educational policy makers.

Providing Information and Advice Services to Individual Parents

Beyond the current two national parent bodies, a range of sources of information and advice for parents already exists. School staff, school heads and the educational authority are the obvious local sources. They are supported by specialist national and local voluntary organisations such as the Enquire national helpline for parents, Children in Scotland and Sense Scotland, as well as a variety of local voluntary organisations.

This begs the question, what gaps in existing provision require a contribution from a national parent body? Indeed it would be difficult for a national parent body to replicate the specific knowledge within each local authority of its own specific policies and practices, as well as the specialist expertise of the wide range of national and local providers.

While a two thirds majority of survey respondents wanted to see a national parent body providing an advice and information role to individual parents, there were many respondents hesitant about this or opposed. A major service might well be deemed either beyond likely resources available or poor value for money where it mainly duplicated quality provision by others. On the other hand, capacity may be developed to cover the needs of parents who want a reliable source of advice about their rights and options independent of education policy makers and providers.

A national body will hold views about many educational issues. Would it be able to provide impartial information and advice irrespective of its policy platform? The body would need to be explicit about its approach. SSBA has suggested any advice and information to individuals should be impartial and could be ensured by staff with the role working to a recognised code of conduct. Were grant provided to finance or part finance this service, it is likely that the body would have to show how it would ensure impartiality.

Providing Public Liability Insurance

The need for public liability insurance by Parent Councils and other local parents' groups depends on the activities they undertake and where they are undertaken. In some circumstances the owners of premises (for example local authorities) may have insurance which covers the sorts of activities of organisations letting them. Joint activities between schools and parents' groups may also be covered by local authorities' insurance provision. It is ultimately up to local parents' groups to clarify any need for public liability insurance and take steps to secure it. It would of course greatly assist local parents' groups if the right sort of insurance were conveniently available.

Discussion took place with stakeholders on whether or not a national body should be involved in some way in offering public liability insurance to its members, with widely differing views emerging.

It is not unusual for national voluntary organisations to take a role in making acquisition of suitable insurance easy for their local member organisations. It meets a need and can become an added attraction of national body membership. Further, scope exists for competitive premiums through bulk purchase and surpluses earned can assist with the body's running costs.

An opposite view was expressed that a national parent body's roles have nothing to do with the supply of insurance and that those primary roles may be compromised or obscured by over prominence of insurance supply in the work of the body.

It is recommended that a new national body considers the issue of providing public liability insurance, teasing out the different degrees to which it could become involved.

No views have come forward suggesting other substantives roles for a national body than those described in this report.

Legal Form of Organisation / Charitable Status

A substantial voluntary organisation like a national parent body would require a legal identity distinct from its members and the individuals serving on its governing body. This essentially means some form of incorporation is required. A company limited by guarantee offers a tried and tested model. Indeed, both current national bodies use this model. No particular benefits appear to accrue from consideration of the alternative of an industrial and provident society. The governing body of a company limited by guarantee would be a board of directors elected by its members.

A simpler option might be a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation ( SCIO), provided the body were to be a charity. An SCIO offers incorporation and regulation by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator ( OSCR) without the additional burden of registration with Companies House, required of a company limited by guarantee. The governing body of a SCIO would be a board of charity trustees. Detailed regulations for SCIOs have not yet been finalised, although it is expected that any new charities formed from around the start of 2008 would be able to consider this model.

Charitable status may confer image, possible rates relief, tax treatment and grant worthiness benefits on a national parent body. The roles described in this report would probably meet the tests applied by the OSCR. However, it would be unsafe to assume that charitable status would be available to a body which saw its remit in terms of a narrow focus on its members' interests rather than wider public benefit from the discharge of its roles.

If a new national body adopted the legal form of a company limited by guarantee, it would exist as soon as a number of interested people subscribed to a memorandum and articles of association, lodged them with Companies House and OSCR, and received a certificate of incorporation from Companies House. The subscribers are the first directors of the company. Subscribers could be some or all of the steering group members or people acting for some Parent Councils who wanted to become members from the outset. Following incorporation, a membership could be built up and a first annual general meeting would bring the body into full democratic operation at a suitable stage. A broadly similar process is required for a SCIO, but its constitution would be lodged only with the OSCR. Companies House would not be involved.

Independence

Those consulted recognised the need for a national parent body to be independent of undue influence on its affairs by others. For both parents and education policy makers and providers it amounts to more or less a pre-condition of authentic representation of parent opinion.

Independence comes through parent control of the national body and by avoiding compromise arising from conditions attached to funding. Consultees have varying perceptions of the degree of intrusion likely to result from the national body's acceptance of public funding. Where a national parent body is disposed to accept public funding, it would need to satisfy itself about any obligations arising directly from it and to what extent, if any, independence of view or action is compromised.

Membership Eligibility

Two forms of membership are common in voluntary organisations - 'ordinary' and 'associate'. 'Ordinary' applies to members who would have rights to vote in general meetings and to elect and become directors. 'Associate' is a form of membership suited to organisations and/or individuals who support the aims of an organisation but have more of an advisory role in its governance and policy direction.

It seemed evident to almost all survey respondents that both Parent Councils and PTAs should be eligible for membership, although the surveys did not seek to distinguish which forms of membership were most appropriate. SPTC and SSBA also favour both types of local organisation having membership, seeing this as an appropriate way to ensure inclusion. While it may be perceived that Parent Councils will typically be more involved in local representation than PTAs, both types of organisation would have legitimate expectations to influence a national parent body's approach to development support and information provision.

There are mixed views about any other forms of school based activity groups being eligible for membership.

Almost half of survey respondents want to see membership extended to local authorities and national organisations with a role in education, again echoing the desire for partnership being embodied within the national parent organisation. In contrast, some respondents felt care is needed not to compromise independence or parent control, nor allow party political agendas to creep in. A minority saw membership eligibility being extended to others with an interest, including churches.

Some exploration of the use of associate membership may help settle an approach to bringing valued partners into the national body in a way which does not dilute parent control. This could be compared to the alternative approach of striving for good working relationships with other partners rather than attempting to embed them in the membership of the national organisation.

If there is growth in the numbers of parent groups operating at local authority level, as seems likely, a form of membership for those groups may be felt appropriate. The only views received on this so far, from SSBA, indicate a preference for associate membership, so as not to duplicate Parent Councils' membership eligibility.

Governance

It is widely accepted that the governing body of a national parent organisation should ensure parent control. This cannot be guaranteed solely by ordinary membership being restricted to local parents' organisations as they will often include school staff as members. If no restrictions were placed on staff being nominated for the board of directors, they could in theory form a sizeable proportion of the board. Eligibility rules could provide for parent only nominations. Otherwise, local parents' organisations would be relied upon to nominate mainly parents for election to the governing body.

A board of directors comprising a majority of parents but including some school staff and key figures in education at national level proved by far the most popular board composition "formula" chosen by survey respondents. In response to this, it would seem simplest to settle a formula for the numbers of each type of board member in the articles of association and devise election rules to deliver it, rather than leave it to chance.

Perhaps the simplest of all options would be the election of the parent board and for it then to appoint or co-opt the school staff and key national education figures. This option would allow flexibility in the way education policy makers and providers contribute to the work of the board, as experience accumulates.

In considering co-options, a board may consider, for example, nominations from

• ordinary member groups of participating teaching staff
• national organisations with associate membership
• key figures from national bodies whom parents may particularly want to influence or utilise for advice.

If the non-parent board member role is perceived as advisory, voting rights may not be appropriate.

Linked to those considerations, feedback from local level suggests a strong aversion for formality and elections among many participating parents. Formulations which allow all interested parents to take part appear popular. This may be more difficult to replicate at national level. Basic democracy can hardly avoid some provision for elections. If board size were large, elections might prove less likely since an excess of nominations over board places would be needed to provoke election procedures. On the other hand a large board may be unwieldy. To some degree, this could be countered by much of the work being devolved to sub-committees.

Beyond an electoral process among members before an AGM, the option of further board members elected from volunteers from the "floor" of the AGM could be considered. This would also help where pre- AGM nominations happened to be low.

Some consultees favour elections which produce a board of parents well spread out across Scotland. SSBA has offered a perspective with local authority level forums playing a role in election processes.

It seems sufficient for present purposes to try to settle basic principles and a broad picture of board composition, leaving the detail until articles of association are being prepared. So far, key issues include:

• Governing body having a practical size
• Some preferring a geographical spread of board members
• Some regional aspect, possibly linked to deployment of field staff
• Simplicity and the avoidance of off-putting formality
• How education policy makers and practitioners are represented.

The Role of Employees in Governance

Where an organisation exists to represent and provide services to an interest group the distinct roles of staff and the board of directors should be clear. In a company limited by guarantee based on a membership, the membership would have overall control through the board of directors. Essentially, staff would work under the direction of the board, although senior staff may have a strong role in running the organisation: advising the board and representing the organisation in relationships with various partners. A sophisticated relationship is required between those senior staff and the board of directors to ensure that, on one hand, work carried out and views represented properly reflect board requirements, and on the other, makes optimum use of the capacity afforded by employing professional staff.

SSBA has offered views in keeping with this perception, emphasising the decision making role of parents on the board of directors.

Capacity

In seeking to attract attention for its views, a national parent body would be operating in a highly professional and "crowded" environment of education policy and practice.

Information dissemination, promoting debate widely among parents, holding policy events and occasional surveys may all contribute to the veracity of opinion expressed on behalf of parents. This has capacity implications.

The case has been put that development support capacity within the national body can complement that provided locally and offer a distinct contribution.

The scale of advice and information service to individual parents required from a national body remains very unclear.

A picture is emerging of a national body requiring capacity significantly in excess of that residing in the two current national bodies.

It is no easy task to arrive at an appropriate staffing level and configuration to deliver the desired roles. A pragmatic approach may be to make a well-judged step change from current national body capacity, within a realistic judgement about financing options. Experience could inform subsequent revision. A steering group may want to think about a capacity based on say, a chief officer, two policy research and development staff, 6 field development staff, one desk based information officer and two administrative staff, a total of 12 staff. A broad brush estimate of the annual running costs of such an organisation might be £600,000. If a period of say 2/3 years were taken to build up to this target capacity, progress could be made cautiously in line with available resources.

Financing

Alternative sources of finance to run a national body should be explored, including a mix of income from several sources.

Membership income is an obvious source. Reliance on membership income provides a spur to recruit, which sits well with a body aspiring to a representational role. It may also be perceived as an income source which does not compromise independence. To create the kind of capacity discussed in the last section, membership fees would need to be higher than set by the current national bodies by a factor of about ten, an unrealistic prospect.

Local authorities are likely to fund membership fees in many cases. Their willingness to fund significantly higher membership fees than now, in times of considerable stress on local government finances, may be influenced by the credentials and performance of a new or evolved national parent body in the future. This suggests that any moves in the direction of higher membership fees should be gradual.

Money raising activities with positive outcomes for children, parent/school partnership and organisational development already form part of the local parent involvement scene. It may be worth exploring how a national parent body could replicate this, perhaps with the focus of activity among clusters of members at local authority level. Development staff could potentially co-ordinate such activities as part of their role.

Charging for services would need to be fully explored as a source of income. Events may offer some scope for charging fees for participant attendance. They might be for example conferences, information sessions or policy briefing sessions. Local authorities providing development support to local parents' groups could either provide learning events directly or outsource them. A national parent body could be well placed to deliver a wide range of learning experiences, if suitably staffed. As with all spending by local authorities, value for money judgements would be made about any events/services offered by a national parent body. This issue is linked to the potential for a national parent body to become a centre of excellence in the provision of events and activities supportive of parent involvement.

Were a strong case developed for it, some neighbouring local authorities may be persuaded to share some or all of the costs of national parent body field staff operating in their area, as an option for discharging part of their obligations to support Parent Councils.

Earning commission from the supply of public liability insurance could potentially contribute to overall income, as discussed earlier.

A national parent body may wish to explore the option of central government funding, either in relation to set-up or ongoing costs. In doing so, it would want to consider how any successful application might be perceived in terms of its independence from government and its standing with parents and stakeholders. Equally, the national body should expect central government to take account of the role of its funding in contributing to the overall objective of parental involvement, as well as value for money considerations.

Transitional funding may be viewed as money required to help introduce major change. It would be for the Scottish Executive to clarify what it may support with transitional funding. However, it is suggested that the criteria are likely to include, in addition to the two stated in the previous paragraph, that

• the transitional process is inclusive and open to the participation of all interested parents
• tangible benefit to a transition to a new or evolved national parent body would accrue from the funding and would be in doubt without it, and
• the funding would be applied to work for which no other source of funding was readily available.

For both national and local government new demands for resources are never easy. However, they may have high expectations of a national parent body's capacity to deliver reliable parent opinion and help consolidate parents' collective involvement at local level. Funding facilitation, legal advice and administrative support for a steering group would be an early example of the type of transitional support which may be required.

Grant providers will typically expect any applying organisation to maximise income from other sources rather than operate from grant funding alone. This suggests that a national parent body with significantly increased capacity would have to look to a mixed package of income sources. Mixed funding also offers a hedge against a sudden change in any one source of income. Further work and debate would be needed to develop a viable mixed funding package.

Whatever funding mix is sought, stability of overall income levels would be an important organisational goal.

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