Parents and families play a vital role in the education of children and young people. Their influence extends well beyond the school gate, shaping attitudes to learning, supporting wellbeing and helping children develop the confidence and skills they need to succeed.

This Parental Engagement Strategy 2026–2029 sets out our commitment to strengthening that partnership and ensuring that parents are supported, informed and empowered as active participants in their children’s learning.

Across our Education Service, we have seen clear and sustained improvement in recent years. Alongside rising attainment and positive outcomes for young people, we are developing more consistent and effective approaches to engaging families, including through digital platforms that make communication and learning more accessible and flexible.

This strategy builds on existing strengths and provides a renewed focus on deepening the quality of parental engagement across all our establishments and services.

We recognise that meaningful parental engagement goes beyond involvement in school activities. It is about supporting learning at home, building parents’ confidence to engage with their child’s learning and creating strong, trusting relationships between families and practitioners.

Through this strategy, we will support schools and early learning settings to further develop approaches to learning at home, expand family learning opportunities and strengthen the role of Parent Councils and wider parental voice in shaping education in Falkirk.

Collaboration will remain central to this work. By listening to and working alongside parents, carers and families, we can ensure that our approaches are responsive, inclusive and grounded in the needs of our diverse communities.

Ultimately, our shared goal is to make a meaningful difference to the lives of children and young people across Falkirk. Through strong partnerships, high-quality learning experiences and a collective commitment to continuous improvement, we will work together to ensure that every child and young person is supported to learn, to achieve and to thrive.

The Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 requires each Education Authority in Scotland to publish a strategy detailing how it plans to engage and involve parents in education.

This Parental Engagement Strategy covers the period from 2026 to 2029 and commits to developing and implementing a Parental Engagement Action Plan for Education Services. The Action Plan will be continuously monitored in collaboration with parents and through reporting to the Council’s Scrutiny Committee.

The strategy has been developed through engagement with parents, Parent Councils, staff and young people and commits to continuing this engagement throughout the three-year period.

While the 2006 Act does not cover Early Learning settings, this strategy includes those settings and seeks to strengthen parental involvement and engagement in early years provision.

Parental Involvement

Parental involvement concerns parents’ participation in school life. It focuses on partnership working between parents and practitioners to support children’s education and wellbeing.

In practice, parental involvement includes:

• Maintaining two-way communication between home and school.
• Attending school events, meetings and consultations.
• Contributing to school improvement and decision-making through Parent Forums and Parent Councils.

Parental Engagement

Parental engagement relates to parents’ active and meaningful involvement in their children’s learning. It extends beyond participation in school life and focuses on the relationship between parents and learning.

Parental engagement can take place:

• At home.
• In early learning and childcare settings or schools.
• Within the community.
• Through family learning activities.

Education Scotland’s toolkit, Engaging parents and families – A toolkit for practitioners, defines learning at home as:

The learning which happens in the home, outdoors or in the community. It can take place through everyday activities that families already do and can overlap with aspects of organised or active learning activities.

Examples include:

• Play, conversations, cooking, trips and leisure activities.
• Homework, reading and sharing books.
• Everyday experiences that support learning naturally.

Education Services commits to supporting parents and families with learning at home and promoting a consistent understanding of what this looks like.

Family learning encourages family members to learn together and supports parents in helping their children learn. It promotes lifelong learning, socio-economic resilience and helps challenge educational disadvantage.

Effective family learning programmes recognise the important role families play in supporting learning and aim to improve attainment and achievement.

This strategy seeks to complement existing family learning initiatives and support establishments to access professional learning and support.

Parent Councils were established under the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 in recognition of the important role parents play in education.

Education Services will continue supporting schools to maintain or re-establish Parent Councils and will review current support and guidance in collaboration with Parent Councils.

• Maintain annual Connect membership for all Parent Councils.
• Promote and strengthen the Parent Council Chairs Group.
• Support forums, focus groups and co-production approaches.

Education Services values all parents and seeks to support those who wish to volunteer within educational establishments.

As part of this strategy, a new Volunteering Policy will be developed.

• Continue funding five PVGs per year per school for parent volunteers.
• Reduce barriers to volunteering opportunities.
• Recognise wider forms of parental contribution beyond volunteering.

Parents should raise concerns with the Head Teacher or Head of Centre in the first instance.

The Council operates a two-stage complaints procedure:

1. Response within five working days.
2. Investigation within twenty working days.

Following completion of the complaints process, parents may escalate complaints to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

• Strengthen parental involvement and engagement across establishments.
• Increase confidence and understanding of learning at home and family learning.
• Provide consistent support to Parent Councils.
• Encourage parent volunteering.
• Improve communication and engagement with parents.
• Develop inclusive, flexible and accessible engagement approaches.

• Create a Parental Engagement Action Plan with measurable outcomes.
• Review and strengthen family learning approaches.
• Promote information and resources supporting learning at home.
• Update Parent Council guidance and support.
• Maintain annual Connect membership.
• Create a new Volunteering Policy.
• Develop a Communication and Engagement Framework.
• Gather parental views through surveys and engagement activities.
• Move from consultation towards co-production with parents.

Education central teams and staff across educational establishments share responsibility for implementing this strategy. The accompanying Action Plan will define specific responsibilities and monitoring arrangements.

Partner and Parent Organisations

• National Parent Forum of Scotland
• Connect
• Aberlour
• Barnardo's

National Legislation and Guidance

• Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006
• Review of the impact of the 2006 Parental Involvement Act (2016)
• Learning Together National Action Plan 2018-2021