Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006

Involvement , ambitions , objectives and performance

1 Duty of Scottish Ministers and of education authorities to promote involvement of parents in school education etc

(1) It is the duty of the Scottish Ministers to promote the involvement of the parents of pupils in attendance at public schools in the education provided to those pupils by the schools.

(2) It is the duty of an education authority to promote the involvement of the parents of a pupil in attendance at a public school in the authority’s area in the education provided by the school–

(a) to that pupil, and

(b) to its pupils generally.

(3) Except where the context otherwise requires, in this Act “education” means school education and includes such provision as is made by an education authority in fulfilment of their duty under section 1(3)(b) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 (c. 44) (duty to secure the provision of adequate facilities for social, cultural and recreative activities and for physical education and training).

2 Strategies for parental involvement

(1) Each education authority must prepare a document, to be known as their “strategy for parental involvement”, containing their general policies for implementing their duties under sections 1, 5, 11 and 12 (including, without prejudice to that generality, such implementation in the case of any pupil who is a child looked after by a local authority); and the complaints procedure established by the authority under section 15 must be set out in the document.

(2) In preparing their strategy for parental involvement, an education authority are to have regard to how that strategy will promote equal opportunities.

(3) An education authority–

(a) are from time to time to review their strategy for parental involvement, and

(b) are to revise that strategy whenever they conclude that it is appropriate to do so.

(4) In developing or reviewing their strategy for parental involvement an education authority must seek and have regard to the views of–

(a) the parents to whom those duties relate,

(b) pupils in attendance at public schools in the authority’s area,

(c) any Parent Council established for a school in their area, and

(d) any other person who appears to the authority to have an interest in their implementation of those duties or of the duty under section 15(1).

(5) The document is to be included (whether or not it has been revised since last so included) in the authority’s annual statement of improvement objectives.

(6) In section 5(2) of the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000 (asp 6) (requirement for annual statement of education improvement objectives to include an account of the ways in which the authority will seek to involve a pupil’s parents in promoting the education of the pupil), at the beginning of paragraph (a) there is inserted “(prepared under section 2(1) of the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 (asp 8) as part of the authority’s strategy for parental involvement)”.

(7) The reference in subsection (1) to a child who is looked after by a local authority is to be construed in accordance with section 17(6) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (c. 36) (duty of local authority to child looked after by them).

3 Ambitions and objectives for a school

In section 6(1)(a) of the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000 (asp 6) (which, for the purpose of securing improvement in the quality of education which a school provides, requires the preparation of a development plan for the school)–

(a) after the words “the objectives” there is inserted “and strategy for parental involvement”, and

(b) for the words “and sets objectives for the school” there is substituted “, sets objectives for the school (including objectives as to the involvement of a pupil’s parents in the education provided to the pupil and to the school’s pupils generally) and contains a statement of the education authority’s ambitions for the school”.

4 Review of school performance

In section 7 of the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000 (asp 6) (which provides for the defining of measures and standards of performance as respects the quality of education provided by schools and for the quality of education provided by a school to be reviewed from time to time having regard to those measures and standards), at the end there is added–

“(3) Without prejudice to the generality of subsections (1) and (2) above, in those subsections “quality of education” includes the extent to which a pupil’s parents are involved in the education provided to the pupil.”.