Memorandum from the National Confederation
of Parent Teacher Association
The National Confederation of Parent Teacher
Associations (NCPTA) is a registered charity which advances education
by promoting partnerships between home and school through support
for Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs). [144]The
organisation represents approximately 7 million parents and teachers,
with more than 13,000 individual PTAs currently in membership
across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. [145]
The NCPTA continues to develop its role in representing
the views of parents both in the media and the education policy
arena. This is a role increasingly demanded by members[146]
and by the media and education policy sectors: the NCPTA is probably
the only organisation which represents such a large group of parents
and is not limited to a single issue area.
The crucial role that parents play in the education
of their children is increasingly recognised. The NCPTA therefore
greatly values this opportunity to comment on the role of parents
in designing and delivering education, including the value of
complaints processes and customer feedback mechanisms.
The NCPTA is contacted with increasing frequency
to help gain parental input to various consultations being conducted
by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). We have of
course welcomed these opportunities. However, in general we have
observed that this is seldom done with sufficient lead time. Engaging
parents needs to be fully integrated throughout the consultation
process and cannot be a final or an afterthought.
This is illustrated by the DfES' attempts to
engaged parents in the Youth Matters consultation which occurred
in late 2005. The NCPTA was delighted when contacted by the department
and told that a questionnaire specifically for parents would be
produced. The NCPTA duly promoted the consultation to its membership,
but the questionnaire was only finally provided just three weeks
before the consultation deadline giving parents hardly any time
to make their views known.
Additionally, information should always be produced
about the consultation which is specifically designed for parents.
In addition to making the consultation accessible, it should highlight
the relevance of the consultation and clarify on which specific
aspects the views' of parents are sought. We need to be realistic
about the likelihood of the average parent being prepared to go
through what tends to be the lengthy general consultation documentation
to determine its relevance to them and their child's education.
The fact that parents are not a homogenous group
must also inform any communication strategy. Crucially, mechanisms
need to be developed to make consultations accessible to those
parents termed "hard to reach". These need to be exploited
from the outset and should include using schools themselves (the
one point of contact virtually all parents have with the education
system).
If parents are going to become more involved
in the development of education policy it is also necessary that
any contribution they make is valued. This means that each parental
submission must be acknowledged and more effort made to disseminate
to parents the effect of consultation responses on the development
of the final policy.
The NCPTA Advice Line, whilst not intended for
this purpose, does receive regular calls from parents who are
struggling to understand how they make a compliant or appeal a
decision made about the school their child attends. This appears
to be increasingly complex, with the process often determined
by the nature of the decision being made and the type of school.
For example, under the new School Admissions Code it appears that
parents only have the right to refer objections about the admission
arrangements of maintained schools to the Admissions Adjudicator.
This therefore implies that parents will not be able to refer
similar objections to the Adjudicator about Academies and / or
City Technology Colleges.
Parents will want to understand why they are
not all afforded equal rights and why there is a clear lack of
parity between them and other key stakeholders within the system:
depending upon the type of school and/or the nature of the decision
being taken others such as the Church of England, governing body
or trustees can directly appeal to the Schools Adjudicator. Parents
however only appear to have the right to appeal to the Secretary
of State and only specifically on the issue of any representation
to the Local Authority about the provision of primary and secondary
education.
This level of complexity in itself may exclude
parents from greater participation. Much greater effort needs
to be made to inform parents about how to make complaints and
the process of appealing decisions.
If you require any additional information or
would like to clarify further anything contained here within please
do not hesitate to get in contact.
February 2007
144 This includes all forms of home-school partnership,
for example friends groups or parent school associations etc. Back
145
The NCPTA has a sister organisation in Scotland called the Scottish
Parent Teacher Council. Back
146
A survey of NCPTA members conducted in July 2006 called on the
organisation to represent the views of parents and teachers on
a wide range of educational subjects (70% of those surveyed). Back
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