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 aims for 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
• membership to 'Connect' (the trading name of SPTC, the Scottish Parent Teacher Council)
• 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.

The agenda (PDF, 109 KB) from the previous meeting with Parent Council Chairs is available to view.

Our Parental Involvement and Engagement Strategy (PDF, 334 KB) and Parents as Partners Leaflet (PDF, 2 MB) 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.

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.  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 Learning & Families Committee

We now have both Primary Sector and Secondary Sector representatives on the Learning & Families 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 ecsschools@pkc.gov.uk and your enquiry will be forwarded on.  Please specify which sector representative you wish to contact.