PTA constitution

The rule: a PTA that is a charity needs a governing document

A PTA whose purposes are charitable – usually to advance the education of the pupils at one school – is a charity in England and Wales whether or not it is registered, and the Charity Commission’s page Setting up a charity: model governing documents puts the requirement in one sentence: “When you set up a charity, by law you must have a governing document. This is the rulebook which sets out how your charity will be run.” For most PTAs that rulebook is a constitution, because most are unincorporated associations of parents and staff.

Registration depends on income. The government’s guide to registering a charity says “You must apply to register your charity if both: its income is at least £5,000 per year or it’s a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO); it’s based in England or Wales.” A PTA below that figure is not required to register, but it is still a charity, its committee are still its trustees and the constitution still binds them. When it does apply, the Commission asks for “a copy of your charity’s governing document (in PDF format)”, proof of income above £5,000 unless it is a CIO, and the trustees’ names, dates of birth and contact details.

The committee are the trustees. The Commission’s guidance The essential trustee (CC3) says the governing document “will tell you which body has ultimate authority and responsibility for directing and governing the charity. All properly appointed members of that body are charity trustees in law, whatever they are called (trustees, directors, committee members, governors or something else).” So the chair, treasurer, secretary and every elected committee member carry trustee duties, must be at least 18 in an unincorporated PTA (16 in a CIO or charitable company, unless the governing document says older), and must not act if disqualified. Check that each person is eligible before they are elected or co-opted, and record the appointment in the minutes.

What a PTA constitution should cover

Parentkind, the membership body for PTAs, lists the other important things to have in a constitution as the name and membership definition, meeting rules (“how often you hold your meetings, rules about how to call them, minimum number you need to be at the meeting (quorum) and who has a vote”), the structure and responsibilities of committee members “including how to remove committee members”, the management of assets and funds, and “How to close the association down”, in its article What is a PTA Constitution and why do you need one?. Its model constitution, available to member PTAs, states the objects as “to advance the education of the pupils in the school”, by developing relationships between staff, parents and others associated with the school and by supporting the school with activities, facilities or equipment.

Set out as clauses, a constitution for a fictional PTA – the Friends of Hollins Lane Primary School – would cover:

1. Name. The association’s name, which also tells people who its members are.
2. Objects. Exclusively charitable purposes, with the people who benefit (the pupils of Hollins Lane Primary School). Everything the association funds has to fit them.
3. Powers. To raise funds, receive grants and donations, open a bank account and work with the school and other charities.
4. Membership. In a parent teacher association, typically every parent or carer of a pupil and every member of staff; in a Friends association, anyone over 18 the committee approves. Say how membership ends.
5. The committee. How many members, elected at the annual general meeting (AGM) for how long, how vacancies are filled and how many may be co-opted, and how a committee member is removed.
6. Officers. A chair, treasurer and secretary, elected by the committee or at the AGM, and what each does.
7. Meetings. How often the committee meets, the notice for the AGM and any special general meeting, the quorum for each, who may call a special general meeting, voting, conflicts of interest and minutes.
8. Money. Funds used only for the objects and held in the association’s own account, two signatories or two approvers for every payment, accounts presented at the AGM, and no payment to committee members except reasonable out-of-pocket expenses.
9. Changing the constitution. Who can propose a change, the majority needed, and that no change may stop the association being a charity.
10. Dissolution. Remaining money or property passes to a charity with similar objects, usually one connected with the school’s pupils, never to the members.

Use the model wording for objects rather than drafting your own. The guidance notes in the Commission’s model constitution for an unincorporated charity (dated November 2013) say an application that “uses our model wording for its objects” and “uses our model governing document”, among other conditions, can normally be decided more quickly, while other applications “will need closer consideration and so will take longer”.

Which model to start from

The Commission publishes free models on its model governing documents page, and three fit PTAs:

• Model constitution for a small charity. Two pages, and described as “Suitable for small charities with an annual income under £5,000 that don’t own a building or employ people and do not intend to register with the Charity Commission.” It has the trustees elected at the AGM, an AGM “every year, with 14 days notice given to all members”, at least three trustee meetings a year, with “a chair, treasurer and secretary” elected at the first meeting after the AGM, a quorum of three trustees, and “All cheques must be signed by 2 trustees.” It is a reasonable start for a new PTA whose income is below the threshold.
• Model constitution for an unincorporated charity. The Commission’s charitable association model, suitable where an organisation “is to be relatively small in terms of assets; has a membership; is to be run by charity trustees who will be elected by members or appointed to hold office for fixed terms”. That describes most established PTAs that will register.
• CIO association model. A charitable incorporated organisation with voting members. A CIO must register whatever its income, but it has its own legal personality, so it rather than the committee signs contracts and holds the bank account. CC3 notes that in an unincorporated charity “the trustees have to sign contracts and other agreements personally, and will have to meet any claim”, which matters to a PTA that hires a venue, books a bouncy castle or employs a holiday club.

PTAs that belong to Parentkind can use its model constitution, which Parentkind says “has been written in conjunction with specialist charity lawyers and the Charity Commission” and “is suitable for your association whether you are a registered charity or not”. Whichever model you use, keep the change history: the date each version was adopted, at which meeting, by what majority.

Officers, the AGM and the rules for events

The constitution only works if the meetings it describes happen. In the small charity model, the AGM must be held every year, “Minutes must be kept of the AGM”, “The trustees shall present the annual report and accounts”, and members elect the committee “to serve for the next year”. Between AGMs the committee takes decisions “by majority decision” at a quorate meeting, and “If trustees have a conflict of interest they must declare it and leave the meeting while this matter is being discussed or decided.” Changing the constitution or winding up needs a general meeting with 14 days’ notice and a two-thirds majority. If decisions sometimes need to be taken between meetings, the constitution has to provide for it; the guide to trustee decisions between meetings explains the routes.

The officers’ jobs are routine but specific. The chair runs meetings and makes sure decisions are taken properly; the secretary gives notice, keeps the minutes and the membership list, and holds the constitution; the treasurer keeps the accounting records, banks the takings, pays approved bills and reports at each meeting. None of them may decide alone what the constitution reserves to the committee.

Most PTA income comes from fundraising events. The Commission’s CC8 guidance reminds trustees that “You must comply with the law which covers public collections and fundraising events”, and two sets of rules catch committees out. A raffle or tombola at a fair is, in the Gambling Commission’s words on running a fundraiser with lotteries or raffles at events, an incidental lottery that needs no licence, but “Tickets can only be sold at the location of the event and whilst the event is taking place. You can’t sell tickets online (which includes social media) or in advance of the event”, no more than £100 of the proceeds may go on expenses and no more than £500 on prizes, though donated prizes have no limit. A raffle sold in advance through the class groups is a different kind of lottery with its own rules. Selling alcohol is a licensable activity, and the government’s page on the Temporary Events Notice says to contact the council for one to carry out a licensable activity “on unlicensed premises”, applying “at least 10 clear working days before your event”; check whether the school’s premises licence already covers the event before the bar is planned.

The records a PTA has to keep

A PTA is small, but the record-keeping duties are the ordinary ones for a charity. For an unincorporated PTA, section 130 of the Charities Act 2011 requires the committee to keep accounting records “sufficient to show and explain all the charity’s transactions”, including “entries showing from day to day all sums of money received and expended by the charity, and the matters in respect of which the receipt and expenditure takes place”, and section 131 requires them to be kept “for at least 6 years from the end of the financial year of the charity in which they are made”. In practice that means:

• the constitution as adopted, with every amendment and the minute that approved it;
• the membership list where the constitution requires one, and the record of who was elected to the committee and the officer roles, year by year;
• minutes of every committee meeting, the AGM and any general meeting, including conflicts declared;
• the cash book or accounting software, bank statements, the float and takings sheets from each event counted and signed by two people, receipts and invoices, and the approval for each payment;
• the annual accounts, the report presented at the AGM and, once registered, what was sent to the Commission;
• Gift Aid declarations if the PTA claims Gift Aid, and records of grants with their conditions;
• the safeguarding arrangements for events, the risk assessments and the insurance.

Reporting rises with income. The Commission’s accounts thresholds (updated 16 September 2026) say a registered charity must prepare an annual return if its income is over £10,000, and must send its trustees’ annual report and accounts if income is over £25,000. Independent examination is required above £25,000 for financial years ending before 30 September 2026, and above £40,000 for financial years ending on or after that date, unless the governing document asks for more. An unincorporated PTA may prepare simpler receipts and payments accounts up to £250,000 of income (£500,000 from the same date). A registered PTA with income over £25,000 also declares in the annual return that no serious incident went unreported.

The PTA also holds personal data – parents’ names, phone numbers and email addresses, sometimes payment details and photographs – so UK GDPR applies to it as an organisation separate from the school. It should tell parents how it uses their details, and should not assume it can use the school’s contact lists.

The committee that meets in a group chat

Read a PTA constitution and then read the committee’s group chat, and they describe two different organisations. The constitution says decisions are taken by a majority at a quorate meeting and minuted. The chat is where the committee actually agreed to spend £1,800 on reading books for Year 2, where the treasurer asked “ok to pay the bouncy castle deposit?” and got three thumbs-up, where someone mentioned that the fair takings were £40 short of the counted sheet, and where a parent’s complaint about the disco was discussed at eleven at night. Each of those is a decision, an approval or a concern in the life of a small charity.

None of it is held by the PTA. The group lives on the phones of whoever is on the committee this year, the admin is often a parent whose children left two years ago, and when the AGM elects a new treasurer the history of every approval leaves with the old one. If a member asks at the AGM why the books were bought, the school asks who approved a payment, or the Commission reviews a concern, the committee is reconstructing its own decisions from screenshots, and a decision taken by thumbs-up in a chat may not be a decision the constitution allows.

The question for the next committee meeting is a practical one: for every payment the PTA made last year, could the treasurer show the meeting or the written decision that approved it, and would that record still exist if the treasurer stood down at the AGM?

Questions people ask

Does a PTA need a constitution?

Yes: a PTA with charitable purposes is a charity, and the Charity Commission says that when you set up a charity “by law you must have a governing document”, which for most PTAs is a constitution. The Commission also asks for a copy of the governing document when a PTA registers, which it must do once its income is at least £5,000 a year.

Does a PTA have to register as a charity?

A PTA in England or Wales must register with the Charity Commission if its income is at least £5,000 a year, or if it is set up as a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), which must register whatever its income. Below £5,000 an unincorporated PTA does not have to register, but it is still a charity and its committee members are still charity trustees.

Can a PTA run without a chairperson?

A PTA can run without a chair only if its constitution allows it, because the constitution decides which officers the committee must have. The Charity Commission’s model constitution for a small charity says the trustees “will elect a chair, treasurer and secretary” at their first meeting after the AGM, so a PTA using it needs to fill the role, or change the constitution at a general meeting, rather than simply leave it empty.

What policies should a PTA have?

No single law lists the policies a PTA must have, and some depend on what the PTA does – an employer with five or more employees, for example, must write down its health and safety policy – but the Charity Commission expects every charity, whatever its size, to treat safeguarding as “a key governance priority” and to have “suitable financial controls in place to guard against fraud”, and UK GDPR requires the PTA to tell parents how it uses their personal data. For most PTAs that means a short safeguarding policy for events, written financial procedures, a privacy notice and a conflicts of interest rule; the guide to the policies a charity needs sorts the rest by what triggers them.

What does PTA stand for?

PTA stands for parent teacher association: an association, usually a charity, of the parents, carers and staff of a school that raises money and builds links between home and school. Parentkind explains that calling yourself a parent teacher association “means all parents/carers/guardians plus all members of school staff are automatically members of the association”, while a Friends association can widen membership to “anyone over the age of 18 who has committee approval”.

Do PTA accounts need to be audited?

Most PTAs do not need an audit: for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026, a charity’s accounts must be independently examined only if its income is over £40,000 (over £25,000 for earlier years) and audited only above £1.5 million of income, or £500,000 with assets over £5 million, according to the Charity Commission’s accounts thresholds. The PTA’s own constitution may still require an independent check of the accounts before the AGM, and that rule applies whatever the income.

Official guidance and your next step

The primary sources are the Charity Commission’s model governing documents, the government’s guide to registering a charity, The essential trustee (CC3) and the accounts thresholds. Parentkind publishes PTA-specific guidance and model documents for its members. PTAs in Scotland and Northern Ireland are regulated by OSCR and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, with different thresholds.

This guide is a summary for England and Wales, not legal advice. If the PTA wants to employ staff, take on a lease or change its structure, take advice first.

Then do one thing: find the PTA’s current constitution, check the date it was last adopted and the quorum it sets, and put both on the agenda of the next committee meeting.