Section 14 - Procedures for appointment of headteacher or deputy and participation of a Parent Council

54.     Section 14 deals with the appointment procedures for senior posts in schools. The 1988 Act set out a detailed procedure for the appointment of headteachers and deputy headteachers and for parents' involvement in that process through the School Board. The Act enables each education authority to develop their own procedures and requires the education authority to inform the Scottish Ministers and Parent Councils for schools in their area about their procedures for filling posts (section 14(1)). In addition, when a headteacher or deputy headteacher is to be appointed the education authority have to involve the Parent Council, where one exists, in the appointment process (section 14(2)). Section 14(3) enables the Parent Council to ask someone who is not a member of the council to assist it in carrying out its functions in connection with the appointment process. Section 14(4) places a duty on education authorities to ensure that appropriate training is made available to any Parent Council member or representative taking part in an appointment process.

Section 15 - Complaints procedure

55.     As part of the scheme of the Act, education authorities are required, in terms of section 15 and following consultation with specified persons, to establish a complaints procedure. This procedure will enable anyone to make complaints or other representations concerning the exercise by authorities of (or the failure to exercise) their functions under the Act in respect of that person. The Act requires the education authority to keep its complaints procedure under review and to vary it when the education authority consider it appropriate. The complaints procedure is to be publicised by the education authority and the authority must provide a copy free of charge on request.

Section 16 - Establishment etc. of Combined Parent Council

56.     Section 16 sets out the arrangements to apply where a majority in each of the Parent Forums of two or more schools decide that they wish to have a combined council cover the interests of the schools involved.

57.     Sections 16(1) and 16(2) set out how a combined council may be set up. The members of the Parent Forum at each school must be told in writing of the proposal and given a specific but reasonable timeframe in which to give their response to the proposal. The decision is to be based on the response of the majority of parent members of each of the Forums responding within that period. Arrangements to establish a combined council can be made at any time, including where a Parent Council has already been set up (section 16(3)). However, an existing Parent Council ceases to exist when a combined council is established (section 16(4)).

58.     If the decision of the Parent Forums in each of the schools for the prospective combined council is that a combined council should be established, the education authority then have to proceed to prepare a scheme for establishing the combined council (section 16(6)), make arrangements for implementation of that scheme which have to include the preparation of a constitution (section 16(7)), and must send a copy of the scheme to the members of the Parent Forums.

59.     Once a Combined Parent Council is established, section 16(8) sets out what the new combined council must do when first set up and whom they must inform of their existence and constitution. This is broadly parallel to the obligation on a Parent Council for an individual school as set out in section 6(7) of the Act. It includes similar provisions as in section 8(2) with regard to the promotion of contact with providers of nursery education, where one of the represented schools is a primary school (see paragraph 36). The Combined Parent Council is to decide its own name.

60.     Section 16(12) provides that, subject to any necessary modifications, a Combined Parent Council has essentially the same rights and functions as a Parent Council, with the provisions in section 7(4) as regards the chair of a Parent Council applying equally to Combined Parent Councils. The headteacher's duty to report on an annual basis on school performance, objectives and ambitions includes, where appropriate, a duty to report to a Combined Parent Council (section 13(1)(b)). Subsections (13) and (14) provide that a Combined Parent Council which includes a denominational school must provide in its constitution for at least one co-opted member nominated by the church or denominational body in whose interest the school is conducted. If more than one church or denominational body had an interest, each must be able to nominate at least one co-opted member to the Combined Parent Council.

61.     Section 16(15) provides that the duties on the education authority to promote the establishment of a Parent Council and to support its operation and in that regard to offer schemes for their establishment cease to apply on the establishment of a combined council but reapply if the school withdraws from the arrangement, and/or the combined council ceases to exist.

62.     Subsection (16) sets out the circumstances in which a Combined Parent Council ceases to exist. The withdrawal or discontinuation from a combined council of one or more schools will not cause the Combined Parent Council to cease to exist so long as there is more than one school remaining in the combined council.

Section 17 - Withdrawal from represented schools

63.     Section 17 sets out the arrangements by which a school can withdraw from a Combined Parent Council. This is to be done by notice of the proposed decision to withdraw being given to each member of the Parent Forum. The decision is to be made on the basis of the views of the majority of members responding within the relevant notice period.

Section 18 - Abolition of School Boards

64.     Section 18(1) provides for repeal of the School Boards (Scotland) Act 1988. Subsections (2) and (3) are structured so as to allow for the repeal of different parts of the 1988 Act at different times. Section 18(4) and (5) set out instances within the 1980 Act and the 2000 Act where the references to "School Board" are now to be taken to refer to "Parent Council or Combined Parent Council", namely in regard to education authority appeal committees considering placing requests or exclusions, and in regard to the preparation of the school development plan which imposes a requirement on the education authority to consult with the council or combined council on the school's plan.

Section 19 - Guidance

65.     Section 19(1) places a duty on Scottish Ministers to issue guidance to the following bodies: to education authorities in respect of their functions under sections 2 and 6 of the Act (preparing a strategy for parental involvement; scheme for establishment of Parent Council); to Parent Councils in respect of their functions under section 8 (supporting the endeavours of those managing the school; ascertaining the views of the Parent Forum and making representations on its behalf; promoting contact between the school, the Parent Forum and others); and to Combined Parent Councils in respect of their functions under section 8 as applied where appropriate by section 16(12). Section 19(2) allows the Scottish Ministers to issue guidance on their functions under any other section of the Act to education authorities, Parent Councils and Combined Parent Councils. Education authorities and Parent Councils are obliged to have regard to such guidance in carrying out their functions under the Act.

Section 20 - Interpretation

66.     Generally, the terms used in the Act are to be given the meaning which they have in the 1980 Act. However, references to "pupils" in the Act include children under school age only where such children are attending a primary school, including nursery classes within a primary school.

Section 23 - Repeals

67.     This section introduces the schedule which makes consequential repeals to the 1980 Act, the 2000 Act and also to other specified legislation.

Section 24 - Short title and commencement

68.     This section contains the provisions relating to the Act's short title and when it will come into force. It allows the Scottish Ministers to bring different parts of the Act into force at different times for different provisions, different areas, different purposes or different cases or classes of cases.

PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY

69.     The following table sets out, for each Stage of the proceedings in the Scottish Parliament on the Bill for this Act, the dates on which the proceedings at that Stage took place, the references to the Official Report of those proceedings, the dates on which Committee Reports and other papers relating to the Bill were published, and references to those Reports and other papers.

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