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?

MrsPnut
However, under basic due diligence for insurance etc
www.charitycommission.gov.uk/trustees-staff-and-volunteers/trustee-role/becoming-a-trustee/
its a good idea to check up on the Treasurer and the Chair

If your insurance comes from the PTA uk organisation then there is no requirement other than having your accounts independently examined which is best practice anyway.

A DBS check would only show up a criminal conviction or significant concerns not that someone was unfit under any of the other categories of section 72 which include being an undischarged bankrupt, disqualification order from being a company director or other serious debt issues.
The charity commission page you are linking to won't open for me but I suspect it predates the DBS changes because I know from my vast experience of the Charity Commission that their wheels turn very slowly.

:-)
I'm an examiner of accounts
I tend to take belt and braces because just occasionally my work ends up in the Daily Mail and people in jail !

From the link:

Some people are disqualified by law from acting as trustees. You can’t be a trustee if you:

have an unspent conviction for an offence involving dishonesty or deception

are currently declared bankrupt, subject to bankruptcy restrictions or an interim order

have an individual voluntary arrangement to pay off debts with creditors

are disqualified from being a company director

have previously been removed as a trustee by either the Charity Commission or the high court due to misconduct or mismanagement

There are also age restrictions. If the charity is a trust or unincorporated association, you must be over 18 to be a trustee. If the charity is a company or charitable incorporated association (CIO), the minimum age is 16.

Thanks Horry, that's section 72 of the Charities act 1993 that I referred to up thread.

Talk - I'm an accountant, specialising in charity accounts so know what you mean but all the courses I've attended recently relating to the changes for DBS have been quite clear about the regulated activities.

I discovered that bit because our chair elect was bankrupt and had a bucket load of CCJs

Neither of which would be picked up by a CRB, though, surely?

friday
yes, the full disclosure had a section on it for financial probity - kids / adults / money

Sorry Talkinpeace, but you are talking out of your arse.

I have in front of me my 12 enhanced disclosures dating back to 2003 and not one of them has a section about financial probity.

The sections are:
Police records of convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings
Information from the list held under section 142 of the Education act 2002
ISA Children's barred list information
ISA Vulnerable adults barred list information
Other relevant information disclosed at the Chief Police Officer discretion

The CRB and now DBS is to look at criminal convictions, issues of a serious nature relating to children and vulnerable adults and to ensure that those struck off cannot work in that field not someone's credit rating.
Talk - if you are advising people regarding governance then I would suggest you undertake some training very soon.

Everyone else - If you need advice on PTA governance then please look at PTA-UK, most PTA's are members due to the insurance cover it provides.

FriendsofPTA, DBS is the Disclosure and Barring Scheme which replaces CRB. As Mrs Pnut says there is no need for everyone who is a member of the PTA to have a check... indeed there is no requirement for school governors to have a check either! Although this is considered to be good practice for governors.

By all means have checks in place for the Committee, which will obviously be useful for whenever you change your leadership but stand firm against all members of the PTA having a check, especially as it is considered good practice to assume that all parents and cares are members.

Finally, I am surprised that your LA is paying for this as the PTA is a stand alone charity organisation and technically has no attachment to the school, ie the school has no right to tell you how they want to spend the money that you raise, although they may ask you for help with certain projects but if you disagree then it is your right to withold monies and spend them on other items for the school.

Sorry I did not make myself very clear in my opening post. I meant that all members of the committee have to give their personal details and have a CRB. I guess this would be about 30 people at the moment. I have no idea if there is a maximum number. There are only elections for specific roles such as treasurer or chairman, anyone else can stand on the committee if they want to. I don't think other people in the school consider themselves members of the PTA unless they sign up for the committee but they may well actually all be members.

Lattelady - does the size of the committee make any difference to your recommendation ?

Mrspnut - should all committee members be trustees and would there be a maximum number then?

All committee members should be trustees and there is no maximum number but it sometimes is stipulated in your constitution.
If you are voting on the activities of the PTA then you should be fulfilling all the activities of a trustee. We only elect for the offices but all the rest of the committee are voted in at the AGM each year.

Does this mean that anyone on the committee is a trustee and therefore does need to have a CRB and share all their personal data with potentially 30 other non elected committee members??

trustees of a charity do not need a DBS check so long as their activities do not include regular unsupervised access to children.

If you as committee members are running a monthly film club (for example) then you would need to have a DBS check. Not because you are trustees but because you are running a club with access to children.

If you instead only put on family events then you do not need to have a DBS check and in either case, your personal information should not be shared amongst the committee as a whole. On our committee, the chair, secretary and treasurer have access to the contact list and we keep it securely.