PAT Principles
Three Principled Proposals for 2007/2008
FIRST PROPOSAL:
It is proposed that Parent Advocates Together (PAT) should become a democratic and constitutional membership based organisation to represent the interests of parents across the metropolitan borough of Sefton.
KEY PRINCIPLE:
Representation means the authority to speak on behalf of the whole group.
OUR JUSTIFICATION:
Representation can be best be demonstrated by inviting, recruiting, mobilising and organising parents as PAT members around an agreed programme, around a constitutional mandate and around a prioritised list of issues and concerns that we agree to take forward together.
SECOND PROPOSAL:
It is proposed that Parent Advocates Together (PAT) should create a governing instrument called a constitution to regulate how we work together. It is proposed that we adopt the Charities Commission model constitution and that we adopt the National Council for Voluntary Organisations code of practice. It is further proposed that a constitutional mandate be agreed in advance at each annual general meeting so as to set the strategy and direction for actions and campaigns that we carry out together.
KEY PRINCIPLE:
A constitution provides PAT with the legitimacy to speak for parents and to organise and speak on their behalf. A constitution enables us to be held to account as elected representatives of the constituency we speak for. Holding ourselves to account through a constitution entitles us to hold our public servants to account as well. We will take on leadership by speaking for ourselves and for other parents.
OUR JUSTIFICATION:
In order to become an effective policy partner we will need to learn how to operate as effectively and as legitimately as the statutory agencies, health authorities and councils that we deal with. Elected officers and employees of Sefton Council, Sefton PCT, the local NHS Trusts and other professional agencies are all public servants. Parents, as voters, provide these public servants with their operating mandate at the general election and at local council elections every five years. We hold our elected public servant to account through the ballot box. We can hold our paid professional public servant to account through our politician and through the pressure of public opinion. The most effective way to hold public servants to account is to scrutinise the decisions they presume to take on our behalf and to make sure that these decisions are good decisions. If we hold ourselves to account as legitimate representatives then we are also entitled to hold our public servants to account with the authority of our membership to do so. We need to demonstrate our own constitutional authority in order to hold them to account.
THIRD PROPOSAL:
It is proposed that Parent Advocates Together (PAT) should create a programme of activities for the next 12 months based on an agreed campaign plan, on a prioritised list of objectives and on an agreed platform. It is proposed that this programme is divided into small manageable tasks and delegated to work groups or sub-committees under overall scrutiny and guidance from PAT elected officers.
KEY PRINCIPAL:
Empowerment means that we learn to do for ourselves what the statutory agencies and bodies cannot do or will not do. By becoming an activist organisation we will take on for ourselves the power and authority to change policy and to commission better services. Our friendship and support for each other are the foundation for solidarity with all parents.
OUR JUSTIFICATION:
Policy development, service commissioning and service delivery are areas that have been taken out of our hands by public servants and by statutory agencies who have traditionally mistaken our ignorance for their licence and our silence for agreement.
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Parents & Advocates Together - The Forum for Parent Advocacy!
