Gwynedd council hope that introducing an online payment system for school meals will help reduce unpaid ‘dinner debts‘ after a report showed that schools in Gwynedd were owed more than £136,000.
Only six of Gwynedd’s 87 schools had no debt, with 23 owed more than £1,000 and one school was owed nearly £18,000 for unpaid school meals.
The report also warned that recovering school meal debts from parents was “taking a long time” and in some cases debts had already been written off. Gwynedd Council’s Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee will now consider the report next week.
The council hopes the online payment system will help prevent debts building up and keep track of money owed. The debts are only occurred in the county’s primary schools, as secondary school pupils pay at the till for their meals.
Owen Owens, Gwynedd Council Senior Manager Education Resources Service, said: “Over the past year, a new easy to use system has been introduced in all the county’s primary schools which means it is possible for families to pay 24-hours a day.
“This new convenient process means that parents no longer have to find the exact money to place in an envelope to pay for school dinners every week. This system also allows parents to monitor their payments and to keep track of any payments they need to make.
“As is system is adopted more widely, it will also lift the administrative expectations on schools and enable the authority to be aware immediately if debts for school dinners accrue.
“The scrutiny report draws attention to the fact that work is already being carried out to tighten arrangements in terms of school dinner debts. As an authority, we urge schools to make us aware as soon as possible so that we can try to deal with a problem and when possible offer help to families to repay before significant debts are accrued.
“As the report that will be consider by the Scrutiny Committee notes, we would encourage families who are finding it difficult to pay for school dinners to contact the Council as soon as possible. It may be that the child could be eligible for free school dinners.”
Any parent who would like more information about the free school dinners arrangements can find details on www.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/free-lunch or contact the Council’s benefits team on email: benefits@gwynedd.llyw.cymru or call 01286 682689 to discuss any questions. To discuss any school dinner debts, parents should contact the Council’s Education Department.
