NORTH Lanarkshire Council has rejected calls to appoint parent representatives to serve on its education committee.
An SNP motion considered at a recent full council meeting called for the appointment of two parents, one from the primary sector and one from secondary, to be elected to the education committee with full voting rights, as seen at several other Scottish local authority areas.
The newly formed Progressive Change North Lanarkshire party submitted the motion calling for this to be increased to four representatives, adding parents of children attending early years and additional support needs (ASN) establishments.
Education convener Angela Campbell, who represents the Bellhsill ward for Labour, argued that the status quo should be maintained as the council already engaged with the Parents’ Forum, which gave all parents’ councils a voice, as well as a consultative group which meets every term, and these meetings received very good feedback.
She added that parent councils had access to online training programmes and an ASN stakeholder group was also being established to allow even more people to have their say, while it would be “very challenging” to ensure the election of parent representatives would be properly and fairly governed.
She concluded by saying that councillors are democratically elected to represent a wide range of people, including parents and carers.
Teaching unions also do not have representation on the committee.
After two rounds of voting, it was decided that no changes be made.
