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Terms & Conditions

  1. When the following words are used in these Terms & Conditions, this is what they will mean:
    1. 1.1 "parentsportal.scot" is an online service designed to provide parents access to a growing suite of online services, including information about a child's education as well as transactions such as granting permission for school trips, reporting an absence, or making bookings for parents' evenings. It is also available via the parentsportal.scot app.
      1.2 "parentsportal.scot" will act as a broker service between parents, or persons with parental responsibility, and the SEEMiS system. The SEEMiS system is a schools management information system used by all Scottish Local Authorities.
      1.3 parentsportal.scot uses the "mygovscot myaccount service" for authentication of users: an identity verification and sign-in service designed to help public sector organisations deliver services to the right person. Please see mygovscot myaccount Terms and Conditions for details;
      1.4 "Service Provider" an organisation that uses mygovscot myaccount to allow people to login and access online services;
      1.5 "We", "Us" or "Our": the Improvement Service, a company limited by guarantee and registered in Scotland (Company No. SC287978) and operating from The Improvement Service, West Lothian Council Civic Centre, Howden South Road, Livingston, EH54 6FF;
      1.6 "You" or "Your": the person wishing to access and/or use the mygovscot myaccount service.
  2. These Terms & Conditions (together with our Privacy Notice and Cookie Policy, together our Terms of Use) applies to your use of the parentsportal.scot and/or where applicable, our website at https://parentsportal.scot/
  3. We recommend that you read these Terms & Conditions carefully and print a copy for your future reference. These Terms & Conditions tell you who we are, how we will provide the parentsportal.scot to you, how we may change or terminate the parentsportal.scot, how you may stop using the parentsportal.scot, what to do if there is a problem and other important information. If You do not understand any point please contact us to discuss before You register, using the details at paragraph 9.
  4. The parentsportal.scot service is provided exclusively to individuals who are at least 12 years of age, have a mygovscot myaccount and have parental rights and responsibilities to access data relating to their specific children only.
  5. You are solely responsible for all of your actions related to the use of the parentsportal.scot service.

  1. We are the Improvement Service, operator of the myaccount service. You can read more about the Improvement Service and what we do at https://www.improvementservice.org.uk.

  1. We will provide you access to a range of educational related informational and transactional services related to your child's education following successful registration and linking process (see section 10).
  2. We also provide facilities to let you raise queries with us through Our support request system. This is a website where you can raise a request or query. You don't have to have a mygovscot myaccount to use the support request system. You should use the support request system if you have a query about registering or using your mygovscot myaccount. If you use the system to raise a query about a service that we don't provide, we may pass that query on to the appropriate party for investigation and resolution. You can access the support request system by going to https://parentsportal.scot/ and clicking on "Help Centre" in the footer of the page.

  1. Before the system can be used, you (the parent) must undertake a one-off process to link to your child within the system. Once a link has been successfully established, a range of services will become available. Note that the final decision on linking a parent and child rests with the school/Local Authority. This requires a manual check so there will be a delay between linking a child within the system and services becoming available. The link will remain in place until the link is broken i.e. child moves school, parental responsibility has changed or the link has been broken by the school.
  2. A one-off process is required to link a child to someone with parental responsibility. To do this, a parent provides information about themselves and their child. This information is then passed to SEEMiS so that it can be checked and approved.
    1. 10.1 The link child process includes an amalgamation of :
      1. 10.1.1 Answering knowledge based questions i.e. answering questions about the child that only the parent would reasonably know;
        10.1.2 Strong authentication i.e. validation based on the contact information held in SEEMiS which will be either mobile number or email address;
        10.1.3 Automated checks by SEEMiS i.e. to establish that the link is "allowable";
        10.1.4 Final admin approval i.e. a link will only be established if an approved member of staff within a school/local authority allows it.
        10.1.5 A successful link cannot be established without completing all four of these steps.

  1. You can use your parentsportal.scot to access a range of educational related services with different Service Providers such as your Local Authority or third party contracted by your Local Authority. Please note that not all Local Authorities use the parentsportal.scot service so you may wish to check before you register with us. 

  1. When You login to parentsportal.scot and sign up to use a service, parentsportal.scot receives some data from mygovscot myaccount and some data from SEEMiS to allow a user to carry out a transaction.
    Once a transaction has been completed, the data will be sent to SEEMiS and/or a Service Provider; your data is then deleted from parentsportal.scot. For some parentsportal.scot services, the school may retain your data for active requests (such permission slips for school trips) – this data will be deleted routinely when it is no longer required.

  1. By agreeing to these Terms & Conditions you are committing to keep your account details secure, and you should not divulge your password or passphrase to any third-parties. If you use our support desk you should never include your password or passphrase in any request and you will never be asked for this information by our support team.
  2. If you are using a shared device (e.g. in a library, internet cafe, or in an office), please ensure you log out of the system after use. The account will be logged out automatically after 10 minutes of inactivity. Your account will be disabled after 15 months of inactivity.
  3. Your account is for your personal use and is not transferable.
  4. Improper use of the parentsportal.scot website or parentsportal.scot app, including attempted fraudulent use, will lead to your account being disabled or revoked.
  5. Failure to comply with these responsibilities may lead to your account being disabled or revoked.

  1. We may change the parentsportal.scot service and/or the Terms & Conditions at any time (in whole or part, whether temporarily or permanently) for any of the following reasons:
    1. 18.1 to reflect changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements
      18.2 to implement minor technical adjustments, updates and improvements, for example, making available additional features and addressing security threats or
      18.3 to release and make available additional features, updates and improvements to the parentsportal.scot service (either temporarily or permanently).

  1. While we try to ensure that the parentsportal.scot service functions correctly, this may not always be achievable and it is provided on an "as is" basis. We cannot guarantee that the parentsportal.scot service will be available all the time or at any specific time. The service may be temporarily suspended if the IT systems or infrastructure used to provide the service are under repair or maintenance or are otherwise unavailable due to an event outside our control.
  2. We do not guarantee that the parentsportal.scot service will be compatible with all or any particular hardware or software that you may use.
  3. We take steps to ensure that the parentsportal.scot service and any supporting materials are free from computer viruses and other harmful computer programs. However, we cannot guarantee this. You are advised to use appropriate firewall and anti-virus software to protect your computer and data.
  4. You must not misuse our website and/or parentsportal.scot by knowingly introducing viruses, Trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our website and/or parentsportal.scot, the server on which our website is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our website. You must not attack our website and/or parentsportal.scot via a denial of service attack or a distributed denial of service attack. 
  5. All intellectual property rights e.g. copyright, trade marks etc. in the parentsportal.scot service and/or our website vest in us or our licensors. You have a licence to use such intellectual property rights within the parentsportal.scot service for the strict purpose of using parentsportal.scot or view our website and for no other purpose. 

  1. We provide the parentsportal.scot service solely for non-commercial, personal use. We exclude all warranties (whether express or implied) in so far as allowed by law. You agree not to use the service for any commercial, business or re-sale purpose.
  2. We exclude liability for indirect and/or consequential loss in relation to or arising from use of parentsportal.scot including for any loss of use, loss of profit, loss of business, loss of revenue, business interruption or loss of business opportunity.
  3. We also exclude all liability arising from or in relation to use of parentsportal.scot in so far as permitted by law. Subject to clause 28, in no circumstances shall our liability under or in relation to the Terms of Use exceed ONE HUNDRED POUNDS (£100) STERLING.
  4. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we are not attempting to exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, fraud or breach of statutory duty. 
  5. For the avoidance of doubt, we have no liability for any third party service that You may access from parentsportal.scot including those provided by any Service Provider and You should check the Service Providers terms and conditions.

  1. You are free to stop using the parentsportal.scot service at any time. You can withdraw consent independently from parentsportal.scot but still keep your mygovscot myaccount. If you want to stop using the parentsportal.scot service you will need to raise a support request and we will delete your parentsportal.scot data.
  2. parentsportal.scot can only delete or amend the limited data that it holds. If Data Subjects want to change their child's details they will need to contact the school or Local Authority directly.
  3. We may need to suspend your access to areas of the website/app and/or your use of the parentsportal.scot service to:
    1. 31.1 deal with technical problems or make technical changes;
      31.2 update or reflect changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements;
      31.3 investigate and resolve unlawful or fraudulent activity or activity suggesting that the security of your account has been compromised.
  4. We may need to terminate your access to areas of the website/app and/or your parentsportal.scot if in our view:
    1. 32.1 there has been a serious failure by you to comply with these Terms & Conditions;
      32.2 We suspect unlawful or fraudulent activity by you or on your account.
  5. We may at our discretion discontinue the website or the parentsportal.scot service at any time without liability. We will endeavour to give you as much notice as we can, however this may not always be possible.
  6. If we do discontinue the parentsportal.scot service we may close your account and delete our records of your registration details and your Personal Data without any liability to you. We may need to retain records and your Personal Data beyond closure of your account, in which case we shall do so in accordance with the Privacy Notice.

  1. You shall not link to our website unless you have our consent.
  2. We shall not be in breach of these Terms of Use nor liable for non-delivery of parentsportal.scot (whether in whole or in part) or for performing any obligations under the Terms of Use if such breach or failure result from events, circumstances or causes beyond our reasonable control. 
  3. We can assign or otherwise transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms of Use at our discretion. Given the nature of the service, you acknowledge that these Terms of Use are personal to you and you cannot assign or otherwise transfer your rights and/or obligations to any third party. 
  4. The Terms of Use are governed by Scots law and the Scottish Courts shall have non-exclusive jurisdiction.

This version 3.0

Last Updated 18/07/2023