The school remains a focus for attention by HMI until the recommendations have been implemented. One school has self-governing status. A small number of grant-aided schools, mainly in the special sector, are run by boards of managers who receive grants direct from central government. Under Devolved School Management control of the school's overall budget is largely at school level. School boards consist of elected parents and staff members and people co-opted from the local community.
Parents are in the majority.
They have to promote contact between parents, the school and the community, and have specific responsibilities such as involvement in the procedures for the appointment of senior staff and community use of school premises. The previous Conservative UK government set up an additional category of self-governing schools opting to be managed entirely by a board of management and funded by direct government grant. This was popular in England but a flop in Scotland. Only two grant-maintained schools were established in Scotland and one, Dornoch Academy in Sutherland, has since returned to the education authority framework. The other, St Mary's Primary in Dunblane, is fighting moves under new legislation to return it to local authority control.