Parents' Views Of Proposals To Improve Parental Involvement And Representation In Schools

MORI Scotland was commissioned by the Scottish Consumer Council on behalf of the Scottish Executive in June 2005 to conduct a national survey among parents of children in Scottish state education aged 5-16. The survey examined parents' views of the Scottish Executive's proposals to improve parental involvement and representation in schools. Current levels of involvement with their child's school were also examined, as were current representative structures.

Key statistics:

• 69% of parents had not been involved in any kind of activity at their child's school
• 79% of parents felt that the balance of opportunities to be involved in the life of their child's school is about right but 18% stated that there are currently too few opportunities to get involved
• 45% of parents reported that they would like to be more involved in the life of the school

Technical details

MORI interviewed 1,000 parents of children aged 5-16 (inclusive) in state school education. All fieldwork was conducted by telephone using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) between 4-25 July 2005 at MORI Telephone Surveys Scotland (MTS Scotland), which is based in Leith, Edinburgh.

The sample was derived using random-digit dialling to ensure that all households, including those with ex-directory numbers, could be sampled for the survey.