So @educationgovuk have decided to give the contract to provide FSM vouchers to Edenred

A ludicrous decision but not unexpected

But there are some important differences to the chaos we saw in March, April, May.... last year

A short thread

Firstly it’s worth noting that there is much more emphasis on the provision of food parcels

Unfortunately I think recent events have overtaken the guideline & the Catering industry have show themselves in the foot

I would suggest, unless they have an exceptional offering (& some most certainly do) schools will not be taking up the packed meals

I accept the wording pressures schools to a degree, but it’s not unreasonable to have the conversation and decide against using the catering offer

Which leaves most schools with two options

The government scheme, run by Edenred or Local vouchers

The benefits of Edenred is that the money comes directly from @educationgovuk

Schools literally send a list to Edenred and the vouchers go to parents

Tempting fate here, but their system is fairly simple & should have capacity now the start up issues have been resolved

The downside is the restrictive nature of the vouchers in terms of limited stores that are signed up, the simplistic nature of the system, the lack of support and, the bad reputation hanging over from the mess they oversaw last year

The final option is “local vouchers”

I suspect we’ll see a large number of schools confirming they won’t be using their caterers parcels and opting for “local vouchers”

I can’t help feel the use of the word “local” is slightly misleading

There is nothing to stop schools using a national company to provide vouchers

In fact there are a number of companies in the market who provide this service, @wearewonde and @huggg_uk spring to mind

These offer fee free vouchers, have good reputations and importantly aren’t Edenred

Alternatively I’ve heard of heads talking directly to a local supermarket & negotiating a deal on gift cards (this is essentially what Edenred do)

It’s not unreasonable to expect a discount when buying thousands of pounds of gift cards

Though obviously this takes up resources

The concern with following the “local vouchers” route, is that @educationgovuk are still being vague about the details

Last time, when @educationgovuk weren’t quite so explicit about “local vouchers” as an option they added conditions and limits to claims unless using Edenred

This meant many schools were put off, fearing they would not receive a refund from a pedantic DfE

It’s clear that @educationgovuk have learnt some lessons & are giving schools more options

I just wish they’d publish the conditions for reclaiming so schools have clarity

Ideally there won’t be anything on surpluses as this really restricts options & forces schools to Edenred

In summary, if you have a great parcel offering, use it

If you are concerned about a surplus, hang fire for clarity on the reclaim process

Everyone else can use “local vouchers” or Edenred via national scheme