PTAs, Scout and Guide groups, youth sports clubs and holiday clubs collect subscriptions and donations for children. The money is the treasurer's job, but the records behind it hold details about children and families. Keeping those records lean protects the children, the volunteers and the organisation.
This guide is about the treasurer's member list. Your safeguarding lead and your national body's rules come first for anything about a child's welfare.
Record the parent or guardian as the contact
Subscriptions are paid, and Gift Aid is given, by adults. Make the parent or guardian the member you contact:
- Their first and last name, email, phone and address go on the member record.
- Reminders and receipts go to them, never to a child.
- A Gift Aid declaration is always the adult taxpayer's, with their own name, house and postcode.
If a family has more than one child in the group, one adult member with a subscription per child is often simpler than a record for each child.
Keep a child's details to their name
If you need a record for each child, for example to see whose subs are paid, keep it to the child's name and the subscription. Do not add a date of birth, school year, address, photo or medical details to the treasurer's records. The treasurer does not need them, and every extra detail is something more to protect, to answer for in a data request, and to delete later.
Use the member type for the subscription, such as Junior or Cub, not for anything about the child.
Do not use notes for welfare information
Member notes are for money matters: "pays termly by standing order" or "sibling discount agreed by committee". They are not the place for:
- Health conditions, allergies or medication.
- Family circumstances, custody arrangements or who may collect a child.
- Safeguarding concerns, however small.
- Religion, ethnicity or anything else sensitive.
That information belongs with your safeguarding lead or group leader, kept under your organisation's safeguarding policy, and shared only with the people who need it. Vasker shows a reminder beside notes and member type: do not record health, beliefs or other sensitive details unless your organisation needs them.
When someone asks for their data
A parent can ask what you hold about them or their child. In Vasker a treasurer or chair opens the member and chooses Download this member's data. Lean records make that request quick to answer and easy to check. See the user guide for the steps.
Next steps
Look through your member list this term. Move contact details onto the parent or guardian, trim children's records to a name, and clear any welfare notes into your safeguarding process. New treasurers can read the PTA treasurer handover checklist.
This article is general information, not legal advice.