Charging and Remissions Policy

Policy Statement

This policy is intended to:

• Ensure that during the academy day, all children have full and free access to a broad and balanced curriculum;
• Provide clarity over when parents can be asked to contribute funding towards the cost of activities, materials etc;
• Provide clarity over when parents/carers may receive remissions to support the cost of activities.

This policy should be read in conjunction with academy policies on Visits, Health and Safety and Curriculum.

We have a commitment to deliver the HEART values and our 2030 strategy: Equity Through Education. Our Through the Lens of Disadvantage priority is considered within this policy and we are devoted to ensuring all pupils have equitable access to all activities.

The Legal Position

This policy conforms to the requirements of the DFE guidance on Charging for School Activities last updated May 2018.

Roles and Responsibilities:

The Chief Financial Officer will review this policy every two years or in the event the DFE guidance changes.

The Principal will ensure that parents/carers are made aware of this policy, and where it can be consulted on, by making it available on the academy website.

The Principal will ensure that all staff are aware of the policy and its implications for any visits they may organise.

The Principal will ensure that where academy funds are used to provide remissions, the CLF Financial Regulations are adhered to

All staff will ensure that they are fully aware of this policy and its scope and that no charge is made to parents/carers unless it comes within the terms of the policy. Where staff are in doubt, it is their responsibility to seek guidance from the Principal.

Processes/General Principles

The general principle is that no charge can be made for education in academy hours (excluding the midday break).

No charge can be made for any books, materials, instruments, equipment or transport for use in connection with education if the education is:

• Within academy hours;
• For the National Curriculum programme out-of-academy hours;
• For statutory religious education; and
• For a prescribed public examination prepared for by the academy.

Examinations

No charge can be made for entry to a public examination on the Secretary of State’s prescribed list, except where the student without good reason fails to complete the requirements of any public examination where the Academy Trust originally paid or agreed to pay the entry fee.

Admission

No charge can be made in connection with admission to a maintained academy.

Finished products

Where parents/carers have expressed a wish in advance to have a finished product made at the academy (e.g. in craft, art or food and nutrition lessons) a charge can be made at cost price. The parents must know the charge for the product in advance.

Board and Lodging

A charge can be made for board and lodging on residential educational visits/activities; the charge must not exceed the actual cost. Parents/carers who qualify for prescribed benefits and allowances are entitled to a remission of the charges (see ‘Remissions’ below).

Transport

Transport to and from home to any activity not provided by, but permitted by, the academy or LA, can be charged for, at cost price (the main example is work experience).

Voluntary Contributions

Parents/carers may volunteer to pay for any educational activity, and academies may request voluntary contributions for any visits/activities both inside and outside academy time. However, no student may be excluded from the activity for not having paid the contribution.

Permitted Charges

The following are permitted charges:

• Charges for board and lodging on trips;
• Costs of lost and destroyed academy property and breakages;
• Any costs associated with individual tuition in the playing of musical instruments whether in or out of academy hours (UNLESS it is provided as part of a syllabus for a prescribed public examination or is required by the National Curriculum);
• The cost of optional extras provided outside academy hours (or mainly outside academy hours),but the charge must not exceed the cost of the provision, and parents/carers must agree to their child receiving the optional extra;
• The cost of entering a student for a public examination not prescribed in regulations, and the cost for preparing the student for such an examination out of academy hours;
• Re-sits of prescribed public examinations where no further preparation has been provided by the academy.

In all cases where a permitted charge is likely to be made the parents must be told the amount in advance.

Activities partly during academy hours

In order to determine whether an activity that is undertaken partly during academy hours and partly out of academy hours the 50% rule is applied:

• Non-Residential Activities: if 50% or more is spent on an activity in academy time (including travelling time, but excluding midday breaks) the whole activity is deemed to be inside academy time, and cannot be charged for; and
• Residential Activities: the number of half-days is counted (a half-day being any 12 hour period ending noon or midnight). If the number of days and half-days spent on the activity is greater than the number of academy sessions (morning and afternoon sessions) that a student would spend on a normal academy day, the activity is deemed to take place outside academy hours, and vice-versa. Travelling time is included in the time spent on the activity.

When a departure or return time splits a half-day then all the half-day counts if more than 50% of the half-day is used for the activity.

Third parties

Following careful checking, the academy will sometimes use a third party to provide some educational activities (e.g. music tuition) on academy premises. It is permissible for such third parties to charge parents/carers. The Principal will write to parents/carers who wish their child to be involved in such activities, to clarify the terms and conditions of any agreement they enter into with any third party. The academy will ensure that the monies are paid directly to the third party organisation.

In such cases, if the activity is in academy time and therefore outside the academy’s official programme, the academy would have to formally grant permission for the student to be absent from lessons.

Remissions

Section 457 of the Education Act 1996, (as amended) provides that, in addition to receiving free academy meals, children whose parents/carers are in receipt of the following support payments, are entitled to the remission of charges for board and lodging costs during residential academy trips. The relevant support payments (as at March 2023) are:

1. Income Support
2. income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
3. income-related Employment and Support Allowance
4. support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
5. the guaranteed element of Pension Credit
6. Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
7. Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
8. Universal Credit – if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

Usual free academy lunch entitlement verification procedures should be applied when considering remission of these charges.

In addition to making them aware through the availability of this policy, wherever possible, the Principal will advise parents/carers of their right to funding if they are receiving these benefits. Any parents or carers in receipt of any of these support payments may contact the Principal in confidence to discuss their individual circumstances.

In addition to the above, in cases where parents/carers are experiencing financial hardship, the academy may undertake to support students’ participation in activities or with the purchase of materials etc. by providing all or part of the costs from academy funds. This will be at the discretion of the Principal following discussion with parents/carers and in compliance with the CLF financial regulations.

Inability or Unwillingness to Pay

The Cabot Learning Federation is committed to ensuring fair access and treatment of all students, and this means ensuring that no child or young person is excluded from an activity because the parents/carers of the student are unable or unwilling to pay. If there is insufficient funding for an activity then it will be cancelled. The identity of the student, or parents/carers who did not want to make the payment, or could not make the payment will not be disclosed under any circumstances.

Monitoring

From 2023/24, the Academy Council will monitor the impact of this policy by receiving an annual (autumn) financial report on activities that resulted in charges being levied, the subsidies awarded (without giving names) and the sources of those subsidies.

The Cabot Learning Federation will also collate and monitor the impact at Trust level.