Schools - Transactions

Free School Meals payments during school closures

Over the period 23 March 2020 to 14 May 2020, 1195 FSM enquiries have been completed.

The following payments have been issued in the fortnightly payments runs:
23/03/20 - £129,037.50 (5735 payments of £22.50)
06/04/20 - £116,077.50 (5159 payments of £22.50) – slightly lower than the 1st payment run as duplicate payments were removed
20/04/20 - £122,917.50 (5463 payments of £22.50)
04/05/20 - £135,517.50 (6023 payments of £22.50)
18/05/20 - £145,305.00 (6458 payments of £22.50)

As of 15 May 2020, we have 60 enquiries outstanding with the oldest dated 12 May 2020. A number of these enquiries relate to applications for the term starting in August 2020 which are not yet open. We have posted the following message on social media in relation to this: 

Free School Meals / Clothing Grants – applications for 2020/21 for the term starting in August 2020 have not yet opened. We will update our website and put a message on social media as soon as applications open.

We are also still receiving some enquiries from parents of P1 to P3 children who have been advised to contact us about missing payments. When we check we find there is no current FSM award in place.  Remember the payments are only for low-income families who would meet the eligibility criteria for free milk and a clothing grant. We are not making payments for all pupils in P1 to P3.

P1/S1 School Placements

We are still awaiting access to SEEMiS, however we anticipate that a solution will be rolled out shortly.

Normally we ask schools to formally confirm places with parents before 31 May. We realise that some parents will still be awaiting a decision on a late request, however we have started to receive several enquiries from parents of catchment children who have not had any contact to confirm their place.

Therefore, if you can access your allocated pupils data, we think it is still important to confirm places to parents now to find out if any places are being declined.

There is no standard letter template and schools should use their own letters / emails. However, they should include the following:
•    Confirm the offer of a place in your school, subject to continued residence in your catchment area by the start of term.
•    Request formal acceptance of the place, and if declined the reason.
•    Invite to induction or information day, if applicable.

We don't need to know about deferrals, as these have already been notified to us. On your Intake Registration Details screen, you will see a column 'Deferred' - if this box is ticked, a deferral has been granted and the pupil will no longer be attending.  Transactions will delete these registrations in due course.

If you are unable to access your data to confirm places, it would still help us if you tell us about any place in P1 or S1 no longer required.

We're aware that many may not have access to the Orb and therefore cannot use our contact form. Instead please email any withdrawals to benefits.team5@edinburgh.gov.uk.

Next update

We'll post another update week beginning 1 June.