What does the
P&C Association
Represent?
Members of a Parents & Citizens Association are committed to a free public education system which is open to all people irrespective of culture, gender, academic ability and socio-economic class which empowers students to control their own lives and be contributing members of society.
This commitment is based on the belief that:
- All people have the capacity to learn.
- The NSW Government has prime responsibility to provide an education system which is free and secular and open to all.
- Schools should be structured to meet the needs of individual students and should respect the knowledge those students bring to school and build on that knowledge to foster their understanding about the world.
Parents, as partners in the education process, have a right and a responsibility to play an active role in the education of their children. P&C Associations and its representatives share a responsibility of ensuring representative decision making for the benefit of all students.
Membership of the Federation is open to constituted parents’ associations in all NSW government schools and to district councils of these associations. P&C Federation provides a range of services to its members, which include 2,100 school based parent organisations, as well as a large number of district and regional councils.
We were established in 1922 and incorporated by an Act of the New South Wales Parliament in 1976. We operate at the national level through our affiliation with the Canberra based national parent organisation, the Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO).
What We Do
P&C Federation is involved in a wide range of services for its members. Some of its key activities include:
- Providing affiliates with public liability insurance and a range of other insurance policies for meetings, fundraising events and their other activities.
- Providing free advice about local problems, correct meeting procedure, association management, constitutions, by-laws, the rights of parents and students, industrial and legal matters, incorporation, authority to fundraise and what P&Cs need to do to comply with the GST.
- Expert publications like the Handbook for P&C Associations and the revised Canteen Management Manual.
- Parent and Citizen, a quarterly journal, which is distributed in multiple copies to all members and covers topical issues relevant to NSW parents.
- Democratically determining Federation policy at its Annual Conference to which all member P&C associations and district councils are entitled to send delegates.
- Implementation of policy and action items between annual conferences coordinated by the Council of the Federation, which includes the office bearers and state councillors which are elected by the delegates attending annual conference.
- Visits to affiliated associations by office bearers and state councillors.
- Lobbying the Department of Education and Training and the New South Wales Government, among other authorities, in the interests of children, the schools they attend, and schools and public education in general.
