PTAs and PTFAs: running the committee properly

October 2026 · Checked against Charity Commission, OSCR, CCNI and Parentkind material · 7-minute read

A PTA, PTFA or friends' group is usually a charity in its own right, separate from the school. Its committee members are its trustees, with the same legal duties as trustees of any other charity. This guide covers what that means in practice, nation by nation, in plain English.

Is your PTA a charity?

Almost certainly. Raising money to support a school's pupils is a charitable purpose, and most PTA constitutions, including Parentkind's model, are written as charitable. The PTA is separate from the school: the school cannot control or dictate how PTA money is spent, include PTA funds in its budget, or audit them with the school's accounts.

Whether it has to register depends on where it is.

Where	Registration	Annual reporting
England and Wales	With the Charity Commission once annual income is over £5,000	Annual return within 10 months of the year end. Charities with income of £10,000 or less have a shorter return. Independent examination over £40,000 income, for years ending on or after 30 September 2026
Scotland	No income threshold. A PTA that wants to be, and call itself, a charity registers with OSCR	Annual return and accounts to OSCR within 9 months. Every Scottish charity's accounts need an independent examination or audit
Northern Ireland	All charities must register with CCNI when called forward, whatever their income. A threshold of £20,000 income and £100,000 assets has been agreed but is not yet in force	Annual monitoring return within 10 months, with the documents CCNI requires for your income band

In Scotland, a Parent Council is a different body, set up under the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 to represent parents. Many schools have both a Parent Council and a separate PTA or fundraising group, and only the charity side needs to deal with OSCR.

Committee members are trustees

Everyone elected to the PTA committee is normally a trustee. That brings the six duties every charity trustee has: act for the charity's purposes, comply with the governing document and the law, act in the charity's best interests, manage its resources responsibly, act with reasonable care and skill, and make sure it is accountable. In practice, for a PTA, that comes down to a few habits:

Keep the constitution to hand and follow it, especially on the AGM, elections and quorum
Spend money only on things that fit the PTA's objects, which usually means benefiting pupils. Gifts for staff are rarely a proper use of PTA funds
Declare any conflict of interest, for example if a committee member's business is quoting for a job
Keep minutes of committee meetings, recording decisions and who agreed them

Money

Hold a bank account in the PTA's own name, separate from school funds, with only elected committee members as signatories. Parentkind suggests at least four signatories, so that two are always available
Count cash with two people present, record the total and bank it promptly
The treasurer reports to every committee meeting, and the full year's accounts go to the AGM
Keep financial records for at least six years
Register with HMRC to claim Gift Aid. Once you are claiming Gift Aid, the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme lets you claim a top-up on small cash donations of £30 or less without declarations, on up to £8,000 of donations a tax year (or ten times your Gift Aid donations, if lower)

Buying things for the school

If the PTA is funding equipment for the school, it is usually better to give the school the money and let the school place the order. The school can then reclaim the VAT, as long as it orders, is invoiced and pays for the items in its own name. The PTA should not pay the school's invoice directly.

Raffles, alcohol and licences

Activity	What you need (England, Wales and Scotland)
Raffle sold and drawn at a single event	Nothing, as an incidental lottery. No more than £100 of expenses and £500 of bought prizes can be deducted from the proceeds, and there can be no rollover
Raffle with tickets sold in advance or to the public	Registration with your local council as a small society lottery. Under-16s cannot buy or sell tickets
Selling alcohol at an event	A Temporary Event Notice from your council in England and Wales, or an occasional licence from the licensing board in Scotland
Showing a film	A film screening licence

Northern Ireland has its own rules on lotteries and alcohol. Check with your council and Parentkind's Northern Ireland guidance.

Insurance and data

The school's insurance does not usually cover PTA volunteers or events. Check what you have, and make sure any outside stallholders or entertainers bring their own public liability cover.

A PTA holds parents' names and contact details, so UK GDPR applies. Keep contact lists in a shared account rather than on personal phones, and only email people who have agreed to hear from you. Many PTAs fall within the ICO's not-for-profit exemption from the data protection fee: the ICO's data protection fee pages include a self-assessment.

The AGM and handover

Most PTA constitutions require an AGM every year, often with no more than 15 months between meetings. It is where committee members are elected, the accounts are presented and the year's work is reported. Before outgoing officers step down, hand over the bank mandate, HMRC login, Gift Aid records, the constitution, minutes, insurance documents and contact lists, and update the signatories and the regulator's records.

Sources: Parentkind, The ultimate PTA guide to governance; HMRC, Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme; Charity Commission, Prepare a charity annual return; OSCR; Department for Communities, registration threshold for charities in Northern Ireland; PTA+, Raffle FAQs; Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006.

General guidance, not legal advice. Your constitution always comes first. Last reviewed October 2026.