Section 2 – Strategies for parental involvement
10.Section 2 places a requirement on education authorities to develop a strategy for parental involvement and to include within that strategy their general policies for implementing the duties imposed on them elsewhere in the Act.
11.Section 2(1) requires each education authority to prepare a strategic statement setting out their policies at the authority level on how they will fulfil their duties under sections 1 (promoting the involvement of parents in school education), 5 (Parent Forums and establishment and supporting of Parent Councils), 11 (duties to Parent Councils), and 12 (duties to parents generally) of the Act. This document must set out how education authorities will fulfil their duties with regard to “looked after” children within the meaning of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (see subsection (7)) and must also include the complaints procedure established under section 15. Section 2(2) provides that, in preparing their strategy, an education authority are to have regard to how that strategy will promote equal opportunities. The term ‘equal opportunities’ is defined in section 20(2) as having the same meaning as in section L2 of Part II of Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act 1998:
"Equal opportunities" means the prevention, elimination or regulation of discrimination between persons on grounds of sex or marital status, on racial grounds, or on grounds of disability, age, sexual orientation, language or social origin, or of other personal attributes, including beliefs or opinions, such as religious beliefs or political opinions.
12.Education authorities are required under section 5 of the 2000 Act to produce and publish an annual statement of improvement objectives relative to their duty (under section 3(2) of the 2000 Act) to seek improvements in the quality of school education provided by them for their area. The requirement to prepare and publish an annual statement of education improvement objectives for their area is part of a framework of planning and operating relative to the provision of school education. Section 2(6) of the Act amends the 2000 Act to make clear that the strategy for parental involvement is to be included in the annual statement. The strategy document
is to be reviewed regularly by the education authority and revised by it when appropriate (section 2(3)).
13.Subsection (4) details the individuals and groups whose views an authority must seek and have regard to when drawing up or reviewing their strategy for parental involvement.
