pta membership requirements?

[friendsofpta]

Our parent association state that every member has to state all their personal details including dates of birth on a form that is circulated to all members.

I understand the requirement for a CRB but that information is confidential. I am struggling to understand why dates of birth etc need to be shared amongst a committee of 30 plus members. I think their reasoning was that it was a legal requirement but I didn't challenge it at the time despite being puzzled.

Is this due to charity status or something that they have decided historically but incorrectly?

I cannot see why it would be required for general members. Data protection regs require that only necessary info be held.

The details incl possibly DOBs for anyone in charge of it as a charity etc maybe required for identity confirmation but no need to circulate any of it.

Sounds like BS to me.

All our staff and parents are automatically members and we certainly don't hold any data of that kind on all our trustees/committee let alone ordinary members.

We are careful enough with volunteer names/emails/phone numbers.

What Horry said.

All staff and parents are members automatically.

Most often, the PTA is just glad if folks show up - they don't question their vital statistics.

Nothing to do with charitable status. We have that, and all parents, staff and carers are automatically members - as others have said

not been asked for that at all. As I understood it in our school all parents and guardians are automatically members, people on the sort of formal part of the committee obviously volunteer/agree to specific roles but I haven't heard of any mention of anything like this.

How very strange - they were absolutely adamant that it was a legal requirement and that you could only be a member if you added all your information to a list which was circulated giving all these details to everyone even those who didn't plan to join. Why would they think this?

Absolute nonsense. Speaking as PTA Chair and Trustee of the PTA Charity!

If they are members of PTAUK, get someone to ring PTAUK up and PTAUK will tell them it's nonsense ;-)

Ridiculous. I have been sec of our PTA for eons and have never had to give my dob.

Total hogwash... it is not a legal requirement, unless your constitution was set up in such a way to say this and I am sure no lawyer would have sanctioned such idiocy..

Are you suggesting that they want all members to have DBS too? This is also not a requirement, unless members are having regular contact with children in school. This is akin to suggesting that all parents should have one as they pick up their children from school.

I suggest you contact these people for chapter and verse pta.org.uk but frankly this is a situation of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing and someone is rather over-stepping the mark.

Nonsense, the form we use to collect the information for uploading trustees to the Charity Commission website has a space for DOB on it but the forms come to me as treasurer and are stored under lock and key not shared with anyone else in the committee.

As has already been said, membership of the PTA is open to all parents, carers and staff at the school, unless they can show a different definition under their constitution.
I'd ask them for a copy of their constitution, if they are a charity they must have one and give you a copy upon request, then check they are complying with it.

was pta treasurer for 6 years
they are talking BS

We know each other's emails off group mailings and some people know home/mobile numbers from arranging stuff of because they/their DCs are friends.

I've never been Chair, treasurer or Sec. They probably do full in official forms for charity status and PTA association insurance.

I have as a WI treasurer.

We don't have CRB/D what's it's unless we hear readers etc.

Emails visible on group mailings is dodgy enough tbh - if it's a mailout they should be in bcc line, and if it's a working group eg Christmas Fair group then it's easy to set up an email account that sends to the whole group from any single member of the group.

what is the issue with dob?

Anyone can have my dob. circulating my mobile or personal email though? er...no

DOB is irrelevant to the work you're doing, and useful to scammers/identity thieves.

Sounds nonsense! Don't see why they would need your DOB.

All parents are automatically members at DCs school and us members who actually organise and run events do share email addresses/ numbers. This info is confined to this group.

CRB checks are only done for parent reading groups.

lattelady - do you mean CRB? If so then yes all members have to agree to have a CRB before being accepted on the committee.

Problem is not just DOB but all our personal details being circulated to everyone when we try to ensure data protection and avoid sharing it unless really necessary. I would not normally share this type of information unless I understood the reason why and as I dont I have posted here to ask why.

However I also think the committee should not have the chance to comment on the appropriate age to have a baby, even if conceived naturally especially if the children involved were made aware of those views. Many threads on MN for example show that there are some very vocal views on the selfishness of mothers having babies very late in life. Guess that could also apply to teenage mothers too.

There is no need for PTA committee members to have a DBS check, unless they are having substantial unsupervised access to children at the school. There is no reason for a PTA to have substantial unsupervised access to children, if parents are present or teachers then they are covered.

I'm surprised the LA are covering the DBS checks for all PTA committee members tbh.

I thought the school paid for the CRB checks themselves - they have always said this? Otherwise how would the LA control the numbers?

All school based DBS checks are done through the LA account, if it comes under LA control.
They may be recharged to the school but why are they taking the cost when budgets are being squeezed?

The Chair and treasurer both need to be CRB under Charity Commission rules to protect against fraud.

Schools always do CRBs for volunteers - and they should be free to the school budget and then covered by the LA bulk account.

Not sure how it works in academies - presumably they still pay to have the LEA as their 'umbrella body'

The Chair and treasurer both need to be CRB under Charity Commission rules to protect against fraud.

Uh oh.

::adds to to-do list::

I discovered that bit because our chair elect was bankrupt and had a bucket load of CCJs .... it makes sense of course

No they don't - the rules have changed substantially. Accepted activity for DBS checks only apply to access to children (or vulnerable adults) not to holding office in a charity.

What you should be doing is getting every member of your Committee (assuming all are trustees) to sign the declaration that states they are a fit person to be a trustee. I include on the form the relevant part from section 72 of the Charities act 1993 so they can check before they sign and we have had one person not return their form because they must have met one or more of the criteria.