The 'go to' organisation for Local Government improvement in Scotland

Parents across the country are well used to the school bag run of information between the school and themselves, regarding their child’s education. This can include forms for trips, annual data check forms, consent forms, appointments for parents’ evenings, and notifications about school events.

parentsportal.scot has been developed to create a digital relationship between parents, pupils, and schools, replacing the traditional school bag run. This digital approach has been developed to improve the way in which schools engage with parents.

A parent can sign in using a single sign-in approach (powered by the mygovscot myaccount service), enabling them to view information about their child’s education, pay for school meals, update their own data and, in time, process a school placing request.

As well as making things easier for parents, parentsportal.scot has been developed to support broader strategic outcomes:

• Drive to increase attainment levels and parental engagement
• Tackle poverty and inequality
• Expansion of early learning and childcare in Scotland

The platform is growing from strength to strength. Seventeen councils have joined parentsportal.scot, we have 1,300+ schools live, 180,000+ linked parents, and 216,000+ linked children. The councils who are live with parentsportal.scot are as follows:

• Aberdeenshire Council
• Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
• Dumfries and Galloway Council
• Dundee City Council
• East Lothian Council
• East Dunbartonshire Council
• East Renfrewshire Council
• Fife Council
• Glasgow City Council
• Inverclyde Council
• Moray Council
• North Lanarkshire Council
• Perth and Kinross Council
• Renfrewshire Council
• South Ayrshire Council
• South Lanarkshire Council
• West Lothian Council

There is also a parentsportal.scot mobile app available for Apple and Android devices, to make it even easier for parents to access online services.

parentsportal.scot has been jointly developed by the Improvement Service (IS) and SEEMiS, the education information management provider.  At the heart of the system is a secure online account that links each parent/carer to their child and education.

More information

Case study: East Renfrewshire Council and parentsportal.scot

Case study: parentsportal.scot

Research was carried out by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the Improvement Service and SEEMiS Group to gauge demand for, and acceptance of, an online service to co-ordinate communications between schools and parents. The report also contains a number of recommendations for the development and functionality of a parents' portal. Download the presentation of full report or the summary findings.