Scottish Government

1 introduction

1. This consultation has been prepared by the Scottish Executive. It explains why Ministers consider that improving the involvement of parents in the appointments of Headteachers and Deputes is so important. The Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement Bill), introduced on 29 September 2005, provides the overarching principles for new appointments procedures and gives Scottish Ministers a discretionary power to impose requirements which any appointments process must satisfy. This consultation relates mainly to how we would use these secondary powers, but also seeks some specific points of guidance. It explains why the Scottish Executive believes that changes are necessary and outlines the extended key stages for parental involvement in the appointments process.

2. We ask for your views, as well as suggestions and examples you consider relevant. There are 5 questions in this paper, which we think relate to the key issues we need to discuss for inclusion in secondary legislation. We also seek your views on the idea of authority wide panels which might be included in detailed guidance. It would help us if you could, when replying, let us know what questions you are commenting on, although we appreciate any comments you might have, not solely those relating to the questions we have asked.

2 Background

Why Change?

3. We know from our discussions with key stakeholders involved in the process of appointing Headteachers and Deputes in Scottish schools that the existing procedures, contained in Schedule 2 of the School Boards (Scotland) Act 1988 (the 1988 Act), are widely believed to be no longer fit for purpose. Local Authorities consider that the current procedures are too inflexible to suit their requirements in the light of the dynamic changes transforming our education system both now and in the future. Parents tell us that they value their current role in the process but wish to play a part in the strategic decision making, and a greater involvement at other stages of the process.

4. We therefore wish to address these concerns by replacing the currently highly detailed procedures with provision which firmly put, on the face of the Bill, the statutory obligation on education authorities to continue with the involvement of parents in the appointment process, but will allow us to build on the current principles for parental involvement, and regulate to ensure we extend that involvement to all key stages of the appointments process. We believe that this approach will allow maximum flexibility to suit educational needs both now and in the future.

Current Legislation

5. Schedule 2 of the 1988 Act lays down the procedures which education authorities have to follow when they intend to fill a post of Headteacher or Depute, where posts are being filled on a substantive basis. The schedule does two things:

• It requires an authority to advertise these posts nationally throughout Scotland; and
• Establishes prescriptive procedures which are to be followed for the appointment committee.

6. Under current legislation, the detailed procedures are set out in Primary legislation and it has not been possible to keep them up to date with changing requirements. Parental involvement is restricted to the final interview stage of the appointment's process. We recognise that parents value highly the opportunity to be represented during the appointment process, however the current practices are somewhat restrictive and can at times hinder local authorities from carrying out their statutory duties under employment law. We wish to ensure parent's wishes and right to be involved in important decisions in their children's school and together with education authorities to secure the right person is appointed as the Headteacher/Deputes.

Proposed Changes

7. The Parental Involvement Bill seeks to enshrine rights for all parents in the way their children's school is run. Section 14 of the Bill creates a statutory duty on education authorities to:

• have a recruitment scheme for Headteachers and Deputes;
• notify Parent Councils and Scottish Ministers of that scheme;
• involve parents in the scheme; and
• provides Ministers with regulatory powers to impose requirements which any appointment process must satisfy or to direct a Local Authority to make changes to their appointment process.

8. In addition to the main principles contained in the Bill, the Executive would propose to use the regulatory powers proposed in Section 14 to set a number of more detailed aspects of how these senior appointments should be made, and to back that up with detailed guidance and best practice which we would require Education Authorities to take into account (under Section 19 of the Bill). The framework of legislative requirement and guidance will allow each local authority to create tailored schemes to maximise their flexibility whilst ensuring compliance through a guaranteed, national, level of requirement.

9. We believe the regulatory approach will allow for flexibility and any future changes. It will also enable greater flexibility on the part of Executive Ministers to react timeously to anticipated specific educational developments such as periodic revisions to the Standard for Headship, as well as the wider background of audit, inspection, quality frameworks and other drivers of continuous improvement.

Leadership

10. The proposals for new appointment procedures will fit into the work we have been pursuing on the wider educational leadership agenda. "Ambitious Excellent Schools", which was published in November 2004 and set out the Executive's policy aims in relation to schools education, identified educational leadership at all levels as a key priority for achieving excellent schools. As a first step towards developing the leadership framework we have been considering how candidates for Headteacher posts arrive at a position of readiness for appointment. We have recently completed a formal consultation on a revised Standard for Headship and are currently exploring additional and alternative approaches to the existing Scottish Qualification for Headship programme. We intend publishing further consultation on this early in 2006.

11. We recognise that the new leadership agenda will take time to evolve, therefore the regulatory approach which we propose will allow for flexibility and the incorporation of new ideas and better ways of working into appointment procedures for Headteachers and Deputes. There may also be an avenue for further parental involvement in assessing readiness for headship and we will give further consideration as to how this might work during the course of the passage of the Bill.

3 Proposals

PROPOSED KEY STAGES FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

12. The core principle of our criteria will be that parents must be demonstrably involved in a meaningful manner in the key stages of any new arrangements. We propose that these stages would be as follows:

• Consultation with Parent Councils on the advertising strategy being adopted for filling the Headteacher or Depute post;
• Consultation on the specific job description/job specification;
• Direct participation from the Parent Council in any Sift/Long leet process, or any intermediate assessment of candidates; and
• Direct participation from the Parent Council in the Final interview/assessment stage.

Job Description/Job Specification

13. The need to match the strengths of candidates with the needs of the school is paramount to any successful appointment. It is therefore important that local authorities should consult and pay due regard to the views of the Parent Council of the school to which the appointment is to be made regarding the job description or job specification for the post. At present many local authorities engage their School Boards when specific job descriptions and specifications are drawn up. However not all do so and we believe there is value in making this a mandatory part of the process.

14. The 1988 Act is quite specific in that all posts for Headteachers and Deputes must be advertised nationally. We would expect this still to be the norm. However, we believe there are occasions when local authorities should have more flexibility than current legislation allows them.

15. In some instances it will be clear that the requirements of a particular job are most likely to be met by candidates within a particular region, or within their own staff. When these circumstances arise, we believe the local authority should be able to tailor their advertising strategy accordingly. This would also help in situations where school closures or mergers leave surplus senior staff, who are themselves experienced and capable school leaders. Under employment law, local authorities have a statutory duty to offer suitable alternative employment. This should never result a headteacher or depute being placed inappropriately in terms of the school's needs. However, it seems reasonable that an Authority's strategy should permit it to examine first whether it has candidates of the right experience and calibre for vacant posts. In any such instances, the general requirement to consult and seek participation from the Parent Council/Forum would still apply, though the precise form of that involvement may vary from that used if the vacancy has been nationally advertised.

16. Where an education authority determines that a post should be advertised, the authority must issue a draft of the advert to the parent forum/council of the school to which the appointment is to be made. The authority should consult and pay due regard to the views of the Parent Council on any such advert.

Q1. Do you agree that the Parent Council should be consulted about the job specifications for the post of Headteachers or Depute, and the strategy for advertising the vacancy?

Sift Procedures

17. We recognise that the process of sifting and leeting requires a high level of professional input in assessing the qualifications, experience and competence of candidates as measured against the specific requirements of the job. We believe that parents should be enabled to participate in any sift or long leet procedures, or any other intermediate assessment stage which may become part of the recruitment process. We would propose that the size and detailed make up of the sift committee be a matter for the local authority to determine, but propose that Regulations should require that the Parent Council be given the opportunity to participate directly, as equal members of the sifting panel.

18. This would not come as a requirement that Parent Councils participated - we want Parent Councils to have the choice as to whether they participate, not that they be required to do so. But we propose that it will be a matter for the parent forum/council of the school to determine who should represent their views if they choose to be involved at sift stage.

Q2. Do you agree that Regulations should entitle the Parent Council to be involved in any sift process?

Appointments Panel

19. The 1988 Act makes very specific requirements as to the make up of an appointments panel. We believe the present very detailed provisions can be considerably improved, and that Education Authorities, being both the legal employer and having the statutory obligation in relation to provision of education, must have the ability to secure a majority on an appointment panel. Moreover we believe the size of an appointments panel should be allowed to vary, for instance depending on the nature of the post including size of school (whereas at present Panels are either 4 or 6 strong, which may continue to be appropriate for some appointments, but will not be uniformly so).

20. However, we propose that the appointments panel must include representation from the parent council for the school to which the appointment is to be made and that the parent members should have equal rights and responsibilities as others on the panel (save the Chair). We seek views on whether 'representation' itself is sufficient, or whether a minimum proportion of the membership would be preferable, for instance to prevent a lone parent voice within a very large appointment panel ( e.g. if each Appointment Panel had to have a minimum of 40% parent voices, that would mean a 5 member Panel would have to have 2 parent members).

21. For Depute Head appointments we propose the Headteacher of the school must also be involved in the decision making process, in line with the current requirement.

22. We further propose that local Authorities should ensure that parental representatives have appropriate training in all aspects of the appointment procedure, including an understanding of the competences required in the Standard for Headship.

Q3. Do you agree that parental representation on the appointments panel should be obligatory? Should that take the form of a minimum proportion of the membership?

Combined Parent Councils

23. In certain situations it may be that the post of Headteacher to be filled may cover more than one school ( e.g. cluster arrangements or learning communities). In other cases it could be that two schools are merging. In such cases more than one parent council might be involved in the appointment process. The 1988 Act makes provision for the establishment of interim boards to cover such instances. The Bill continues this principle by enabling the establishment of combined parent councils. In view of factors such as confidentiality and training, we seek views on whether the parental representation in the appointment procedure should be drawn from a combined parent council as per section 16 of the Bill (as published).

Q4. Do you agree that parental representation for school mergers or cluster arrangements should be drawn from a combined Parent Council?

Schools with no Parent Councils

24. Section 5 of the Bill outlines that all parents of the school will form the Parent Forum. It is envisaged that most schools will establish a Parent Council to represent their views. Where no parent council exists, it would seem logical that representation from parents in the appointments process should be drawn from the Parent Forum, and that the Forum itself should be invited to decide who should go forward to the Panel as Parent members.

Q5. Do you agree that where a school does not have a Parent Council that representation should be drawn from the wider parent forum?

Local Authority Panel

25. The natural turnover for Headteacher posts is not high. Realistically most schools could have a gap of a number of years before a further appointment might be required. Some local authorities have seen the advantage in having informal networks of parents, drawn on a voluntary basis from existing school boards. The purpose of such panels has been to offer the opportunity to discuss wider authority issues. We can see merit in developing this good practice and incorporating it into guidance for the appointments process for Headteachers and Deputes, which we will also require local authorities to have regard to in making appointments

26. We are interested in seeking views on how we might build on these informal arrangements to help improve professional rigour in the selection process. A local authority panel of parents could be drawn from volunteers from local Parent Forums, to assist and advise the local authority in taking forward strategic discussions in relation to the filling of Headteacher and Depute posts within their local authority. Such panels would be highly trained in the core competences and assessment procedures for appointments to these posts, and could bring a valuable additional parental involvement in the appointments process. A local authority panel might also offer an advisory role to individual Parent Councils to include advice on appointments procedures and practice. Local authorities and Parent Councils could also, if they so wished, include representation from both the local Parent Council and area panel among the parental representation on any appointments panel. As the leadership agenda develops there could be further merit in the use of such a local authority panel being involved in the overall assessment for headship.

We would welcome your views on the establishment of local authority panels to help develop parents' expertise in appointments and strengthen the process.

4 how to respond

In this consultation paper a number of questions have been highlighted because we would particularly like to know your views on these issues. Please do not feel obliged though to respond on all of them or be restricted by the set questions. Your comments on any aspect of the proposals will be welcome. When responding, you should complete the response information form on page 12.

A template setting out all the questions can be downloaded from www.parentzonescotland.gov.uk or is available by calling 0131 244 0791.

If you wish to reply on paper, please send your responses to the following address by Tuesday 28 February 2006:

Headteacher and Depute Headteacher Appointments Consultation
Scottish Executive Education Department Teachers Division

If you wish to reply electronically, please email your response by Tuesday 28 February 2006 to Headteacherappointments@scotland.gsi.gov.uk . An electronic version of the response information form is available on the Parentzone website.

We would be grateful if you could indicate clearly in your response which questions or parts of the consultation paper you are responding to (using the consultation questionnaire if appropriate) as this will aid our analysis of the responses received.

This consultation, and all other Scottish Executive ( SE) consultation exercises, can be viewed online at www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations . You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is.

The Scottish Executive now has an email alert system for consultations ( SEconsult). This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new SE consultations (including web links). SEconsult complements, but in no way replaces, SE distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all SE consultations activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.

Access to Consultation Responses

We will make all responses available to the public in the Scottish Executive Library by 30 March 2006, unless confidentiality is requested. All responses not marked confidential will be checked for any potentially defamatory material before being logged in the library.

The views expressed may be quoted or referred to in any future review of responses. If you do not wish your responses to be made public, please ensure that you indicate clearly that all or part of your response is to be treated as confidential. Confidentiality will be strictly respected. We will still count confidential responses in any statistical analysis and your views will of course be taken into account in the same way as for non-confidential responses.

Electronic Publication and Additional Copies

This publication is available on the internet at www.parentzonescotland.gov.uk and on the Scottish Executive website.

Copies of this consultation paper have been sent to each school. If you would like additional copies, or if you would like this document in another format or language, please contact us on 0131 244 0791. We will try to accommodate your wishes.