Conference

2008 Safe Internet Use

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Highlights of previous SSBA conferences :-

2007 Developing a Parent Council and Encouraging Parental Involvement

2006 The Way Forward for Parental Involvement

2005 Parents in Partnership

2003 Partnerships and responsibilities

2002 SSBA is fit for the future

2001 Roadshow

2000 International
and published book
available here online

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‘Parents in Partnership’

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Philip Rycroft's speech to SSBA Conference
on 19th March, 2005
Head of Schools Group,
Scottish Executive Education Department - our guest speaker

Parental Involvement in Education

I want to do four things in this short presentation:

• Set our proposals on parental involvement in schools in the context of our broader policies

• Explain why we are proposing change

• Give a brief explanation of what we are proposing

• Set out briefly the next steps

Broader context

Ministers’ ambitions for school education in Scotland were set out in Ambitious, Excellent Schools in November last year

Grouping of policy ambitions under 5 headings:

• High expectations, high quality leadership and confident, ambitious schools

• Professional freedom for teachers and schools to tailor learning to the needs of individual young people

• Choice and opportunity for young people to help each of them to realise their own potential

• Support for learning for young people in challenging circumstances

• Tough intelligent accountabilities

Say two things about this:

i) focus is on promoting excellence in schools; everything we do at national level must be seen through that perspective – how do we support local authorities, headteachers, management teams, classroom teachers and other professionals in schools to deliver excellence? How do we help parents support that drive for excellence through their involvement in their schools?

ii) clear shift away from what was an overly prescriptive centrally driven policy agenda. Ministers are determined to see that give way to much more by way of local freedoms.

The Executive will continue to set the expectations that we have nationally for our schools and create the legislative framework and the resources to allow delivery.

But we need to leave much more space, trust and freedom for schools and teachers to act – to back professional judgements more, to devolve more authority and initiative to local level.

It is in that context that Ministers are very keen to give much more prominence to the issue of parental involvement in education.

Why? The simple truth is that where parents are:

• actively involved in their local school

• and with their child’s education

the whole learning community is stronger and we get better outcomes for our children. We all know that parental involvement in a child’s education is a key factor in determining their success in life.

Why Ministers are consulting on changes to legislation on parental involvement

That is the background to the proposals by Ministers to change the legislation on parental involvement. It derives from an absolute recognition of the importance of parental involvement and a determination to improve and strengthen that involvement.

So, why change from what we have?

We need to remember the context of the 1988 Act which itself changed the then arrangements for parental representation through School Councils.

To quote Peter Peacock: ‘In 1988 Government education policy was directed on a … mission which had a focus on parents taking clear managerial responsibilities for their school … making way for schools to opt out of state control ... That was the context for the legislation in the School Boards Act.’

That legislation is very detailed and prescriptive and it has given rise to divisions in forms of parental involvement which are artificial and unnecessary. It is a fine example of legislative micro-management – the no choice approach.

It’s full of detailed requirements and restrictions - formal election procedures, restrictions on numbers of parents, what can be discussed by a school board and what cannot.

It offers no real leeway for what parents in a school might want to discuss or how they want to work.

We simply don’t work like this any more.

As I said above, today education policy is about setting a clear national framework of standards and expectations, but allowing local freedom and flexibility to deliver to meet the differing needs of every individual child.

Through the National Debate and through subsequent work with parents and stakeholders, Ministers have tested the continuing relevance of the 1988 Act. 

We’ve held a series of in-depth discussions with stakeholders including groups of school board chairs.

We’ve commissioned research on parents’ views which covered a wide range of parents, particularly the ‘silent majority’. 

It found that the formality of the school board system put many parents off and made them less inclined to get involved.

So our consultation to date has confirmed our belief that the 1988 Act needs to be changed. That is why we are now broadening out that consultation to test specific proposals for change.

What are we proposing to do?

The New Bill is about strengthening parental involvement and representation, not about managing schools. 

It’s about trying to give all parents a voice.

That is why the thrust of this new Bill is much broader than that of the 1988 Act.

Whereas the 1988 Act focused entirely on school boards, the Bill is about a lot more than just ‘representation’.

It addresses the whole dialogue between schools and parents – focusing on the way authorities consult and engage with parents and the way they are involved in the school.

I don’t need to go into details of the Bill – I’ve no doubt that you have already given it careful consideration. But at heart this is a straightforward proposal.

The Bill gives parents clear rights:

• Rights to be consulted

• Rights to be involved in setting up their parent forum

• Rights to have their voice and views listened to

• Rights to request and get information relating to the education of their own children.

The Bill places a duty on local authorities to promote parental involvement. Through this we aim to ensure a strategic, inclusive and ongoing approach to parental involvement in every part of Scotland.

It places a duty on local authorities to promote the establishment of parent forums for all schools in their area.

Ministers don’t want to prescribe the form of parental involvement from the centre – these matters are much better given expression locally. The Bill sits firmly within the broader philosophy for school education – giving more flexibility, more freedom, more trust locally.

Hence the proposal to replace School Boards with a far more flexible type of representation, a school’s parent forum. Parents themselves should have a say in how they are represented in their own school.

It is deliberately not prescriptive about operational details.

Let’s be clear about this. There is an opportunity here for parents, school boards – you – to build on the best of what you have now. It is about building on and extending the opportunities for the hugely valuable input you make to your schools. If the format of the school board suits the parental body, that’s fine. If the parents want to develop the arrangements into something different over time, perhaps something that can give more parents formal involvement, that too will be fine.

We at the centre do not know what is best for you on things like that. You should have the capacity to define the best arrangements for your school, not follow some pre-set and prescriptive formula devised by civil servants like me.

Do not mistake flexibility for vagueness. In our view, tough new statutory duties on local authorities to promote parental involvement should sit alongside local flexibility to allow parents to determine the form of that involvement.

I know that there will be many detailed questions about the operation of the new parent forums. Within that broad arena of flexibility, there will be some matters on which parents, schools and local authorities will want guidance. If people want such guidance, we can develop it in consultation with our stakeholders as work on the bill progresses. But primary legislation is not the right place for such detail.

The question of Headteacher attendance at Parents Forums has also provoked much comment since consultation launch.

The draft Bill doesn’t include a requirement for headteacher to attend or an automatic right for any non-parent to attend either.

But there’s a specific question on this in the consultation designed to draw out opinion and we will look carefully at the answers we receive.

Be clear, the Bill does not prevent headteacher attendance but does allow the forum to meet alone should they wish or need to.

Ministers are clear that they would want head-teachers, teachers and others that parents might want to co-opt or invite to attend to be an active part of the forum.

But, given that parent forums are not about the management of schools in the way intended in the school board legislation, the legislative requirements need not be the same.

We want to get away from over-prescription of meetings in legislation – should primary legislation be used to stop the parent forum ever being able to meet unless the headteacher is present?

Ministers are also aware of the concerns about what might preoccupy the parental forum if headteachers were not present. To quote Peter Peacock: ‘I certainly don’t subscribe to the view that without the headteacher present, the forums would degenerate into ‘moaning shops’, I think more highly of parents and their motivation than that.’

The Bill would also repeal Schedule 2 of School Boards Act and allow us to modernise appointment systems for appointing headteachers and deputies while clearly retaining the principle of parental involvement.  

This new flexibility in appointments procedures is also long overdue and essential in taking forward our leadership agenda. 

We will want to leave a good deal of discretion to local decision making – what arrangements make sense for a one teacher primary in Highland may not at all be what is needed for a large school in the Central Belt. 

But the Bill sets out some basic principles which all local authorities, regardless of circumstance, will have to meet. That includes an obligation on the authority to involve any parent forum in the appointment process.  We are also proposing reserve powers to allow us to set additional conditions and to keep these relevant and up to date without the need for a further long wait before a slot becomes available for primary legislation. 

What happens next

You now have your opportunity to respond to what has been proposed in the draft bill. The consultation period runs through until 7 June. After that, Ministers will take time to consider the responses to the consultation before deciding on taking the draft bill forward. If legislation is to be introduced, it is likely to go to Parliament in the autumn.

I should add that this consultation on draft bills – an innovation that came with devolution – is a hugely important part of the legislative process. It gives everyone a chance to give their input before we submit the Bill to Parliament. And there are few pieces of legislation that go completed unadapted from draft to first reading in Parliament.

So take this opportunity to give us your views – though I hardly think I need urge this audience to do that.

Back to Conference 2005