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Making the difference - improving parents' involvement in schools: a consultation on a draft bill

4 how to respond

In this consultation paper a number of questions have been highlighted because we would particularly like to know your views on these issues. Please do not feel obliged though to respond on all of them or be restricted by the set questions. Your comments on any aspect of the proposals will be welcome. When responding, you should complete the response information form below.

A template setting out all the questions can be downloaded from www.parentzonescotland.gov.uk or is available by calling 0131 244 4485.

If you wish to reply on paper, please send your responses to the following address by
Tuesday 7 June 2005:
Parental Involvement Bill Consultation
Scottish Executive Education Department
Schools Division
Area 2-B North
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ

If you wish to reply electronically, please email your response by Tuesday 7 June 2005 to parentalinvolvementbill@scotland.gsi.gov.uk . An electronic version of the response information form is available on the Parentzone website.

We would be grateful if you could indicate clearly in your response which questions or parts of the consultation paper you are responding to (using the consultation questionnaire if appropriate) as this will aid our analysis of the responses received.

This consultation, and all other Scottish Executive (SE) consultation exercises, can be viewed online at www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations . You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is.

The Scottish Executive now has an email alert system for consultations (SEconsult). This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new SE consultations (including web links). SEconsultcomplements,
but in no way replaces, SE distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all SE consultations activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.

Access to consultation responses

We will make all responses available to the public in the Scottish Executive Library by
5 July 2005, unless confidentiality is requested. All responses not marked confidential will be checked for any potentially defamatory material before being logged in the library.

The views expressed may be quoted or referred to in any future review of responses. If you do not wish your responses to be made public, please ensure that you indicate clearly that all or part of your response is to be treated as confidential. Confidentiality will be strictly respected. We will still count confidential responses in any statistical analysis and your views will of course be taken into account in the same way as for non-confidential responses.

Electronic publication and additional copies

This publication and a summary leaflet designed for parents are available on the internet at www.parentzonescotland.gov.uk and on the Scottish Executive website.

Several copies of this consultation paper have been sent to each school. Summary leaflets have also been sent to all schools for onward distribution to parents. If you would like additional copies or if you would like this document in another format or language please contact us on 0131 244 4485. We will try to accommodate your wishes.

Respondee Information Form

The Scottish Executive Consultation Process

Consultation is an essential and important aspect of Scottish Executive working methods. Given the wide-ranging areas of work of the Scottish Executive, there are many varied types of consultation. However, in general, Scottish Executive consultation exercises aim to provide opportunities for all those who wish to express their opinions on a proposed area of work to do so in ways which will inform and enhance that work.

While details of particular circumstances described in a response to a consultation exercise may usefully inform the policy process, consultation exercises cannot address individual concerns and comments, which should be directed to the relevant public body. Consultation exercises may involve seeking views in a number of different ways, such as public meetings, focus groups or questionnaire exercises.

Typically, Scottish Executive consultations involve a written paper inviting answers to specific questions or more general views about the material presented. Written papers are distributed to organisations and individuals with an interest in the area of consultation, and they are also placed on the Scottish Executive website enabling a wider audience to access the paper and submit their responses. Copies of all the responses received to consultation exercises (except those where the individual or organisation requested confidentiality) are placed in the Scottish Executive library at Saughton House, Edinburgh (K Spur, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh EH11 3XD, telephone 0131 244 4552).

The views and suggestions detailed in consultation responses are analysed and used as part of the decision-making process. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise the responses received may:

• indicate the need for policy development or review
• inform the development of a particular policy
• help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals
• be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented.

If you have any comment about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to the postal or email addresses in Section 4: How to Respond, on page 20.

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