To complain the SCOPAY system is sexist?

[Botharms]

The schools here use SCOPAY to collect payments for lunch, trips etc.
My problem is they only send one link out to register, which only allows one parent/guardian to register.
For the second parent to register they have to hassle the school to send a second link and wait for them to get round to it.

With separated parents, the "secondary parent" often doesn't know they've not been sent the email asking them to sign up until it's too late.
For parents who live together the "secondary parent" still has to go in and pester the school, and parents often don't get round to it (it's a hassle and you don't want to bother the school and be seen as a problem parent) - so all the responsibility and admin falls on to the "primary parent".

Where this becomes sexist and appears to break the 2010 Equalities Act is that the "primary parent" is disproportionately the mother - or is assumed to be the mother by the school. So although SCOPAY haven't directly set out to dump more work and responsibility on mums and exclude dads that is the indirect effect of their system.

I know SCOPAY isn't setting out to be sexist, but it's pretty obvious that more childcare/child admin is done by mums, and that with separated parents the "primary parent" is normally the mother (even if there's shared care the school tends to assume it's the mother)

It would be simple to resolve - just send out 2 registration links for every child, or at least send out 2 links for every child with 2 registered adults.

Yabu. I dont see it as sexist. They dont know who the primary parent is.

I’m in a place with a different system. Everything automatically goes out to emails for all registered guardians. There just isn’t any reason not to set up an email list that way.

They don't know who the primary parent is. If it's almost always the mother then it isn't the school that is sexist.

Why would you need various links, just use and email and password that either parent can use to log in.

Indirect discrimination is still unlawful.

Indirect discrimination is still unlawful.

We'll have to agree to disagree. I dont find it discriminatory.

Not sure this is a) in any way discriminatory or b) worth getting so outraged by you need to complain.

Only enrolling the primary parent is in itself sexist. The primary parent tends be the mother so by their system SCOPAY and schools are disproportionately discriminating by excluding men and demanding more work from women.

This looks like "Indirect (and unintentional) Discrimination" www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination1/check-what-type-of-discrimination-youve-experienced/indirect-discrimination/ and against the 2010 Equalities Act.

Regardless of the law it's harmful and unneeded.

If in a household mum normally does 80% of the child admin and dad does 20% then SCOPAY by excluding dad is depriving mum of the limited help that he does normally provide.

With separated parents both parents often share responsibility but mum tends to be assumed to be the primary carer, so dad doesn't get an invite. Which then means he can't put money on for school lunch etc.

It doesn't seem a big ask to invite both parents by default and then at least the system isn't making the imbalance between mums and dads worse.

a) I think I've shown how the effect is discriminatory - it's a pain either way.
b) I'm not outraged, just irritated.

It's not a one off failure it's a systematic problem where dads don't get the email to be added to the system (despite the merciless slew of informational emails from the school via scopay - so they obviously have my email).
I've had both primary and secondary do it to me now, for more than one child. There were other dads in the same boat as me this weekend, trying to get access to the system so we could put money on so our Yr7 children could buy lunch (they were excited to be able to choose what to eat at secondary and to "buy" it themselves with the cashless system).

Still why would I be outraged? It's obviously not a deliberate choice it's just thoughtlessness, but if no-one raises it then they'll never realise the discriminatory effects and never sort it out.

The primary parent is whoever the parents write first on the list? No choice on the part of the school?! Everything in our school goes to whoever is 1 and 2 on the list.

YANBU, OP. Sadly, indirect discrimination is difficult for many to grasp.

I worked in a school office. Parents provided us with contact details and whichever parent they listed first became the primary parent.
Thought it was the same in all schools?
If you are unhappy op just ask them to change it.

YABU

My husband and I both have Scopay on our phones and are logged in with one email address.

Pretty handy when it comes to the before and after school club booking rush as we can both be on there.

This.

Add the dad on the school form first if you want them to be the primary parent.

It's down to the parents being indirectly discriminatory by putting the mother's name first

So did you put yourself down as the Primary parent?

Shared joint email address for all co-parenting stuff.

But you get to decide who the primary parent is?! If you don't want to be doing the admin, don't put yourself down as the primary parent!

Agree!

When I’ve raised this as an issue with school (different system, not Scopay) they’ve told me it costs the school per email address registered/per user. So understandably schools don’t want that on their budget.

I do think all these systems should be 2 registered addresses/users per child as standard, however. So I do agree that Scopay and its ilk are contributing to indirect discrimination and they should consider that in their pricing structure.

You ask the school for second link. Its not sexist and not discrimination as they aren't refusing to send u the link

To say it's sexist would assume parents are heterosexual by default. And yet it's SCOPAY that are being bigoted?

Nah that's not how the law defines indirect discrimination.
I'm saying it's sexist because the SCOPAY & school system is meaning far more mums than dads are sent the registration mail. Even if only 10% of parents are heterosexual it's still perfectly possible for the SCOPAY system to be sexist for that 10%.

a) You have to know you need the link - so you need to know that the mums got the links but the dads didn't.
b) it then takes time to get the link so I was still unable to use the system for the first 2 days of school lunches.
c) it's more hassle, and as it's more hassle parents who live together are less likely to bother so it's pushin yet more work to the mums.

Saying there's a way around the issue doesn't stop it being an issue (it just makes it less serious). If a protected group were banned from entering a shop through the front door this would be discrimination - even if they were allowed to enter the shop through an unmarked door at the back.

You are being ridiculous about this, as others have pointed out it is the PARENTS who decide who is primary contact. If you want dad to be primary then put him first n the list. Its really not difficult or sexist.

So many school systems are set up to send info to only 1 parent. I agree it's sexist and outdated and needs to change, but if schools are charged per email address in the system I can see why it doesn't...