Staff leaving gifts paid for from school fund?

[EnergyStar]

I now work in a school after a long career in the private sector.

In my old job, whenever someone left (or was long term sick) we'd have a collection among the staff to buy flowers or some other gift.

In this school these kind of gifts are paid for out of school fund - approx £250 in the 6 months I've been there. This seems all wrong to me and surely not what the money was raised for?

What does your school do?

Whip round here

I've worked in environments where there was a staff fund, which the staff paid for , out of which was taken money for tea, coffee, etc., but also money for all the 'little gifts' that you are constantly buying.... flowers for someone off sick for a while or who has been bereaved, a small tioken gift for someone leaving who had been there a short whiile, etc... and then it was toopped up by a whip round for any long term staff leaving.
Are you sure you've got it right about where the fund comes from ?

Absolutely sure BackforGood - I write the cheques!!

Whip round.

Surely the School Fund is for educational purposes not staff perks.

Are they gifts from the children / school community rather than the staff? I've known that to happen in schools I've worked in.

My last school used school fund to pay for pizza on parents' evening. In my current school, we all 'donate' £15 per year to staff presents. It seems to increase each year, and the number of teachers leaving seems to increase too. Maybe they should look at the latter rather than raise the fund...

Collection in the staff room and when long serving staff have retired a letter was sent out asking if anyone wished to contribute (many of the parents had been taught be the teachers in question) and a box was left in reception for those who wanted to make a donation.

collection in most schools I've worked in
one school had a fund which staff paid into each month
Don't think I've been aware of school fund being used

Maybe the staff fund is paid into school fund account as a way of getting the cash off the premises and then a cheque is issued back from that account?

Thanks for all your experiences, this is definitely the school,fund though - hard earned as it is. I'm responsible for the bookkeeping entries etc, so I would know if it came it was reimbursed from any other source. Effectively all the profit we made from the Christmas fayre has been spent on flowers and chocs/wine for sick, pregnant or leaving staff.

The Bursar is fuming over it, but the head and deputy think this is how it should be done.

No, if that's actually what is happening (and it's not that we doubt you, it just seems so unlikely - which gives you an answer in itself!) then that sounds wrong.
I could cope with it being used for the odd bunch of flowers to say 'thank you' from the school - maybe for a Governor who is leaving after a length of service, or a cleaner who has had an operation or something that isn't quite "staff", but not for regular staff leaving presents, that's either a whip round or a regular monthly/annual contribution from staff there.

I have never known that to be the case in schools I have worked in. Brown envelopes seem to come around on a regular basis asking for contributions to flowers/gift vouchers for retirements/wedding gifts/maternity presents etc

If this is true, I am very surprised. Are you sure that all the 50p/£1 coins aren't paid into the school office and then a cheque written in exchange?

Yes, grandma I'm sure!!

If it was happening that way 1) I'd be asked to contribute and 2) I'd have to do the banking

The last one was £40 worth of flowers for the departing SCITT student

I work in a school and no the school fund should not be used for that. The fund should have a written purpose eg 'for the benefit of all of the pupils' or similar. Audit wouldn't be happy to find that was happening I'm sure.

Staff fund at my place - we put the money in ourselves and it goes on the sort of thing EnergyStar is talking about.
If it's money raised by the parents then surely that's misappropriation of funds? I'd be pissed off as a parent if that was the case.

Well that is illegal and the will get aserious warning when audit come in if they find out.

At my school the staff pay xx amount a term to go towards staff presents for marriage, births, leaving, sickness, etc.

Whistleblow to chair of governors. Outrageous.

Are you in charge of the school's finances? It sounds like you are new and have only just started there?

I would go to the head to check and say-'I've been going through the accounts and it seems like the money for staff gifts is coming out of school funds which seems highly irregular. Can you clarify what the situation is?' Then, you can gauge her reaction and take it from there.

There is probably something buried in Schools Financial Value Standards documentation which clarifies what the School Fund can and cannot be used for - it's not immediately obvious, but it should be covered somewhere.

I'm also at spending £40 on flowers for a student who is coming to the end of a placement, even if the money were coming from a legitamate source ! The number of different people doing placements at a school over an academic year, would bankrupt many a fund.

With my parent hat on, I wouldn't be happy that any donations I made to school fund were being used in this way - it, rather worryingly does sound like misappropriation of funds.

Actually, audit is pretty clear on this one- as custodians of public funds schools are not able to buy gifts for employees unless this has been contributed by a collection. When does this get muddied - if a private school or academy has agreed that some funds raised out of the usual govt dedicated funds can be allocated toward staff morale/wellbeing etc (thereby creating unrestricted usage of funding). This would be agreed by governors and is fine.

Perhaps there is a debate that the occasional leaving gift does wonders for staff morale, collective well being and, therefore, staff absenteeism - student results improving - this could be an argument. However, technically - no - you cant give gifts unless you have raised the funds through a contributory system.

Now - what about tea and coffee at break........

P.S - you can whistleblow this - just look at the priory.....