Scottish Parent Teacher Council

2006 CONVENER'S REPORT – Steve McColl

WHAT'S IN A YEAR?

This is my last report as Convener and it is therefore very satisfying to say that SPTC continues to be in a strong position and has moved forward on a number of fronts - more members, an improved database, an updated website, ongoing surveys of members' views and continuing involvement in a range of national education groups.

MEMBERSHIP

I'm pleased to report that our membership has increased yet again - from 1425 to 1479. This increase includes an extra 26 school members (against a programme of school closure) and 28 clubs and groups. All members, except those who have joined most recently, are listed by authority at the back of this report.

INSURANCE

Insurance provision remains stable and we continue to work competently within the new rules, ably guided by our professional advisers at Towergate Risks Solutions (formerly Adams Tingle).

IN THE OFFICE

No one sits still in the office for long and this year has been even busier than usual.

Our email traffic (to sptc@sptc.info ) has increased considerably and we now send Backchat out to half our members electronically as well as in the more traditional paper form. More and more people are making use of our website www.sptc.info and Eleanor Coner, our Information Officer, spends a lot of time ensuring that the website is up-to-date and carries the wide range of information, from fundraising ideas to the latest on plans for Parent Councils that parents need.
We changed over to using a new database in January 2006 for our membership records. The transition worked very smoothly thanks to the expertise of our ICT adviser, André Coner. Now we feel confident enough to explore more uses of the system and to assist in this Lynda Grant, our Administrative Officer, has been on two courses – introductory and more advanced – on the use of Access. She is now the SPTC in-house expert.
Lynda was also chosen to become the SPTC expert on the new Charity Law which was introduced in April 2006. This brought in a new “public benefit” requirement that charities have to satisfy and also created the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator who maintains the Register of Scottish Charities and ensures that all such Charities comply with the new law.
Another change that has forced the office onto a steep learning curve is the change in post. Size as well as weight is now a factor in determining the cost of postage. We have all the charts, including ones with handy measuring slots, a new chip in the franking machine and wall chart reminders. A4 envelopes now cost more than smaller A5 or standard letter envelopes for the same weight of content. The office is treading a careful path between minimising postage cost and not compromising what we send out. Now, mailings only go out in A4 envelopes after all the options have been considered and the staff have determined that this is necessary. We anticipate that, overall, the changes made by the Royal Mail will put our costs up.
Finally, we have been involved in plans to expand our office space. Property development at our building in George Street released two rooms which the developer was keen to join with our existing two rooms into a single office. It seemed like too good an opportunity to miss, particularly as the alternative was to move, so we agreed to the development which is now underway. We hope to be in the new completed space by the end of October and have undertaken the pleasant task of choosing the paint colours. However, being shrouded by scaffolding and having to work to a constant background of hammering is a rather less attractive feature of the development. Obviously, the expanded office will cost more and this means that we have had to take a careful look at our finances. It will mean that over the next few years our capital reserves will start to fall but as this capital was always set aside for office accommodation, we decided it was a proper use of the money.

SPTC is very fortunate in having such an able and dedicated office staff who take change and development in their stride and continue to sound calm and unruffled on the phone.

OFFICE HOURS

The official office hours are from 9.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. Monday to Friday, but there is someone around until 4.00 p.m. most days. Otherwise, messages left on the answerphone will be answered as soon as possible.

PUBLICATIONS

We continue to issue regular editions of our newsletter, Backchat, and the in-house production means that it's very up-to-date. We have also improved its e-provision. We now send members a link to Backchat on the website so that they do not have to cope with downloading huge files and we have a special email-friendly version for contacts. Similarly our leaflets are all downloadable from our website as well as being available by post. All our material is available on request, free of charge.

HELP AND ADVICE

Our telephone helpline is available during office hours and we take calls on anything affecting our members, or indeed any parent or teacher, member or not. Not surprisingly the number one topic of inquiry has been t he need for police checks, but we have also fielded the normal range of questions on topics as diverse as insurance, the use of a bouncy castles and the role of the PTA chairperson.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT BILL

As you might expect - and may have noticed from various Backchat articles - the last year has been totally dominated by the passage of the Parental Involvement Bill. We attended all the Education Committee hearings as well as the debates in the full Chamber of the Scottish Parliament; we had a series of meetings with MSPs and Scottish Executive officials to discuss the proposals and subsequent amendments; Judith Gillespie gave evidence on behalf of SPTC and in support of the proposals, to the Education Committee. On a more detailed level we worked with those responsible for preparing the Toolkit to ensure that it met parents' needs. We have also been actively engaged in working with Scottish Executive officials and experts at Towergate Risks Solutions in identifying the public liability insurance needs of the proposed Parents' Councils and work out how these can be met.

CHILD PROTECTION

Child Protection continues to be another major issue for us.

PTAs continue to have difficulty in understanding what it means for them and what they have to do in terms of getting disclosure checks. The situation is made more complex by the fact that different local authorities interpret the legislation differently; some err on the side of caution and want everyone who is involved in a school to undergo a disclosure check whereas others are more balanced in their interpretation and require only those actively involved in childcare to have a disclosure check (the position required by the law). With no reports of incidents arising from PTA events, it would seem that the more balanced approach is satisfactory. SPTC staff have become expert at offering clear, precise and helpful advice.
There is growing concern that the excessive bureaucracy involved in disclosure checks is stopping many people from volunteering and is having a limiting effect on the activities that children are allowed to take part in. (A number of authorities have cancelled all foreign exchange visits because they cannot check host families). We have therefore put together a dossier of evidence which we think shows disclosure as having an adverse impact on participation and/or on children. We are in the process of sharing this evidence with others who feel the same way.
Finally there are proposals to streamline the disclosure system, extend it to those who handle children's written records and introduce a mechanism that enables agencies like the police, health service and social work to share confidential information where they believe this is necessary for reasons of child protection. We have been involved in a series of conferences, seminars and workshops to discuss the proposals and in all cases we have argued for balance and clarity.

CURRICULUM REVIEW

Plans to change the curriculum and refocus it on four learning capacities rather than just on subjects are now in the discussion stage. The aim is to deliver more cross-subject teaching and develop youngsters to be successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. SPTC personnel sit in a number of fora to discuss the proposals and we hope that they are being effective in putting forward the parental perspective. Once again we are determined that the parental voice will be heard in this major development.

SURVEYS

This year we ran one major survey of members.

Cut in Class Contact Time : The McCrone deal was not just about teachers' pay; it was also about their conditions of service and one of the changes it introduced was a cut in class contact time from 25 hours to 22.5 hours for primary teachers and from 23.5 hours to 22.5 hours for secondary teachers. The cut was staged in primary schools with the final one-hour cut due to be implemented from August 2006 along with a similar cut in secondary teachers' class contact time. This year our survey of parents asked whether they knew of this change, whether they had got the information from the school and what would be the effect in their school.

We ran the survey over the summer term and had a very good response. We heard back from 178 schools (12% of those surveyed) across all but one local authority. The information we got back showed that different schools were dealing with the situation differently; in some primary schools there was a second classroom teacher whereas in others specialist staff were brought in to teach sport, music, home economics etc. In the secondary school the impact of the change was not yet clear but folk were concerned about a cut in subject choice and a shortage of teachers to step in when colleagues were off sick. However, the main message we got back was one of anger – not anger at the changes but anger that so little effort had been made to keep parents informed. The full report is available on our website www.sptc.info

CONSULTATIONS

We have responded to consultations on:

Proposed changes to the Vetting and Barring System
Proposals to involve parents in the appointment of headteachers
Proposals to release information about the whereabouts of sex offenders to the local community
Request from the Petitions Committee to comment on school transport safety
Request from the Petitions Committee to comment on school closure
The Schools (Nutrition and Health Promotion) ( Scotland ) Bill

These responses are available on our website www.sptc.info

INVOLVEMENT

SPTC Directors and staff have been actively engaged in a number of national/local policy committee groups.

Audit Scotland Advisory Group on A Teaching Profession for the 21 st Century – Judith Gillespie
Edinburgh City Council SEN Forum – Miranda Harvey
Equal Opportunities Commission review of pay and conditions of classroom assistants - Eleanor Coner
Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) Advisory Group – Eleanor Coner
LTS Enterprise Group – Eleanor Coner
National Qualifications Steering Group – Judith Gillespie
National Sexual Health Advisory Committee – Miranda Harvey
School College Partnerships Stakeholder Forum – Angela Anderson
Scottish Council for Financial Education Advisory Group – Eleanor Coner
SCFE Working Group on PSE – Jennifer Stewart
Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) Working Group on Class Sizes – Judith Gillespie
SEED Data Access Panel – Judith Gillespie
Scottish Forum on Education – Eleanor Coner
Scottish Joint Committee on Religious and Moral Education – Linda Coad
Scottish Network for Parental Involvement in Children's Learning – Susan McColl
Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) Board - Judith Gillespie
SQA Advisory Committee – Steve McColl
SQA Internet Safety Project Steering Group – Eleanor Coner

CONFERENCES

As usual there have been a number of conferences this year attended by SPTC members. These include conferences on: educational research; school management, school transport, rural schools; education reform; sexual health; child protection; safe routes to schools; bullying; online safety; inclusion. Reports from conferences are posted on our website.

SPTC AND OTHER BODIES

Once again, we have not met the Minister this year, but we have had meetings with officials in the Scottish Executive, Her Majesty's Inspectorate for Education, Educational Institute of Scotland, COSLA representatives, Careers Scotland and Save the Children.

NCPTA

We continue to have very good links with our sister organisation in England – the National Confederation of PTAs. This year they celebrated their 50 th Anniversary and did so in great style with a reception at Buckingham Palace – the Duke of Edinburgh is a former Chairman. Eleanor Coner got into her glad rags and went down to join the fun.

AND FINALLY

I have enjoyed my stint as Convener of SPTC. It has been interesting and informative to be at the heart of educational policy making and I like to think that we make a difference arguing for the sensible tendency and for parents. In everything that SPTC does, the office staff play a very important role but my thanks also go to the dedicated band of volunteers who serve as directors, input their views from a range of different perspectives, engage in vigorous debate and represent SPTC at a wealth of conferences. I hope to continue my links with SPTC but as, over the last four years I have been training as a teacher, I have to stand down from being convener. SPTC has always maintained a strict rule that the post should be held by a parent. We were therefore very pleased when a similar rule was written into the legislation as regards the chair of Parent Councils. I would like to thank everyone for their support and hard work over the last four years.

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