Introducing Parent Councils

The Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 established a new structure and process for creating a parent representative body for each school.

All parents who have children in a school are automatically a part of the Parent Forum for that school.  The Parent Forum can set up a Parent Council to represent them and act on their behalf.

The main features of Parent Councils are:

The Parent Forum decides on the type of Parent Council and constitution that is right for the school.
The Parent Council should establish a written constitution, detailing such information as aims, purposes, membership and meetings.
Only parents of children at that school can be members of the Parent Council.
The Parent Forum can agree that the Parent Council constitution allows other people to be co-opted onto the Parent Council of a denominational school.
The Parent Council chair must be a parent of a child at that school.
The headteacher or their representative has a right and a duty to attend Parent Council meetings, unless the parents and headteacher decide otherwise.
Schools can choose to set up a Combined Parent Council which would cover more than one school.

What doe the Parent Council do?

Parent Councils play an active role in supporting parental involvement in the work and the life of the school, while also providing opportunities for parents to express their views on children’s education and learning.

The Parent Council, as a statutory body, has the right to information and advice on matters which affect children’s education.  The school and the education authority must consult with the Parent Council and take their views into account whenever decisions are being taken on education provided by the school.

The type of things a Parent Council could get involved in include:

Supporting the work of the school
Gathering and representing parents' views to the headteacher, education authority and HMIE
Promoting contact between the school, parents, pupils, providers of nursery
Fundraising
Organising events
Being involved in the appointment of senior staff.

Members of the Parent Forum may nominate themselves for selection.

There will be a maximum number of 8 parents selected.

It is recommended that the minimum number of parents on the Parent Council is no less than 4.

In the event of the number of nominations exceeding 8, there will be a public meeting at which a councillor will select, at random, 8 nomination forms.

Those selected will serve on the Parent Council for one year.