Scottish Parent Teacher Council

Updated: July 2007

The Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 came into force in April 2006. This set up the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and gave a new definition of a charity in Scotland as ‘a body entered on the Register’. To be entered on the Register you have to meet the Charity Test.

What are the advantages of Charitable Status?

For the average PTA/Parent Council they are limited to:-

being able to get gross rather than net interest on bank accounts, although, with the amounts that PTAs and Parent Councils normally keep in banks and current low interest rates, this amounts to very little;
being able to receive money through gift aid (you need to keep careful record of who has given a gift aid donation).

Are there any drawbacks to having charitable status?

Being a charity brings with it certain responsibilities concerning: how your accounts are drawn up; how you report to others; the role of the committee member (who could now be a trustee) and the need to publicise that the organisation is a charity.
Receipt and payments accounts must be kept and copies have to be sent to OSCR each year with an annual return.
All charities in Scotland are publicly accountable and they must ensure that the public can readily obtain reliable information about their activities (including copies of the constitution and accounts). There is a requirement to produce an annual report detailing activities.
If your charity goes into debt, the trustees (those who have general control/management of the charity - this could be the office bearers or the whole committee) are fully responsible for those debts.
You cannot switch charitable status on and off. Once granted, it commits future committees to these duties and liabilities.
A charity can be removed from the register but any assets that they hold will still be subject to OSCR’s regulatory regime.

Are there any drawbacks to not having charitable status?

Apart from the loss of the limited financial gains listed above, there are no drawbacks. Having/not having charitable status does not affect your position as a "proper" PTA/Parent Council.

Some PTAs/Parent Councils look to charitable trusts to boost their fundraising efforts, particularly for one-off special projects. Some of the trusts will only give funds to registered charities. However, it is usually possible to channel such funds through SPTC, using our charitable status. We then pass the money on to the group concerned. In the past, a number of PTAs have used this process quite successfully.

Charities are not exempt from VAT

How do you get Charitable Status?

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) grants charitable status, and each and every group that wants it has to apply for it separately. No PTA/Parent Council has charitable status simply by being a member of the SPTC.

OSCR grants charitable status if the group meets the Charity Test, which states that they must only have charitable purposes and must provide public benefit. The charitable purposes are set out in the legislation and should be those used in constitutions (though the exact wording does not have to be followed). This alone does not mean that an applicant has passed the test. The activities that a charity carries out (or intends to) will be what OSCR takes into account in deciding whether they are providing public benefit.

The objects clause of your constitution is where you state what the broad aims of the organisation are to be and the statement of your organisation's aims must be carefully worded if you wish to have charitable status.

Your PTA/Parent Council will be an educationalorganisation and hence a charitablepurpose would have to be "the advancement ofeducation".Aims like, "to encourage the recognition of the views of parents at the school" should be included as a "power" and should not be part of the "objects" clause.

When applying for charitable status your organisation must submit a copy of its constitution along with the application for charitable status and a trustee declaration form. OSCR should process your application within three months and may comment on clauses in your constitution which affect charitable status. However you should not regardacceptance as being evidence that your constitution is watertight or correct in other respects! Likewise, refusal does not mean that there is anything illegal about your constitution.

Applications packs for charitable status are available from, and should be returned to:-
OSCR
            2nd Floor
            Quadrant House
            9 Riverside Drive
            Dundee   DD1 4NY
Application packs can be downloaded from the website: www.oscr.org.uk
OSCR can also be contacted on 01382 220446

Constitutions

The purpose of a constitution is to set out the aims of the organisation and to provide a set of rules for how the organisation is to be run. Charity trustees have to ensure that these aims are fulfilled. However the golden rule with a constitution is "keep it simple". The advantage of having a constitution is that everyone knows how your PTA/Parent Council works i.e.

who the members are,
who has the final say,
how you elect your committee,
how you organise a general meeting,
who can call such a meeting etc.

It is important to build in guarantees like properly called general meetings so that some small unrepresentative group can't hijack proceedings. On the other hand don't write in conditions that are very hard to live up to such as an unnecessarily large quorum at the AGM or a need to give too much notice of a general meeting. Our leaflet Constitutions Made Easy has some helpful hints and we do have a model constitution, but it is to act as a guide and we would advise anyone against following it too slavishly.

Other leaflets available

What is a PTA
What is a Parent Council
Constitutions Made Easy
A Model Constitution
Money matters

ABOUT S.P.T.C.

You may be interested to know that our membership insurance scheme covers:

Public Liability
Personal Accident
Fidelity Guarantee
Employer's Liability
All-Risks (for equipment purchased by the PTA/Parent Council)
Short-term all-risks for special events

Published by:- Scottish Parent Teacher Council,
53 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2HT
Tel 0131-226 1917 or fax 0870 706 5814
Email: sptc@sptc.info Web site: www.sptc.info

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