Friends of school fundraising

hotchop

Evening all.

I am a parent of a child attending local primary school ( in Wales) and there is talk that the SEN unit will be closing.

The friends of the school have bought £££££ of pounds of equipment such as computers, whiteboards etc.

Who legally owns these items? the friends or the school? The reason I ask is that there is talk that the education authority will be taking the equipment.

The parents will obviously want the equipment to stay at the school, its the unit closing, not the main school.

I have tried googling the info but come up stumps.. any help/ advice much appreciated.

Many thanks

Savvy_Sue

Did the friends physically order and pay for these extras, or did they do what we used to do and hand the dosh over to the school, so that the school could order them free of VAT?

That might make a difference to the answer ...

jog

I would guess they are the property of the school as you would have gifted either the items or the money to buy the items, to the school, but it is worth checking.
In our association, we give the school money to buy the items that have been agreed, but they become the property of the school so the PTA isn't liable for the running / servicing / repair costs etc.

Has anyone actually asked the LEA if those items could be kept by the school as they were paid for by parents at that site? Presumerbly the Friends group could show which items they paid for from their records. Might be worth someone from your group approaching the LEA to disscuss the situation.

Jog

hotchop

The issue was only raised in the week. The friends give a cheque to the school who then purchase what they require, though there is documented evidence to show these purchases were actually made n behalf of thefriends.

Is there another way of protecting these items from the LEA? whilst I appreciate the LEA want to "give away / share" with othr user providers when all bar 1 of the SEN units close in the county, the school still require them.

The friends have worked really hard to provide these extras and do not want to see them going.

Savvy_Sue

So, if a number of units are closing, does that mean there will be more children in the (now entirely) mainstream school with special needs? If so, it should strengthen your argument for items paid for by the Friends to stay on site, as they will still be needed.

(I'm guessing they haven't waved a magic wand and reduced the number of children with special needs.)

Mojisola

As an ex-governor, I don't understand why the LEA would be taking the equipment at all. It doesn't matter whether the school or the friends group raised the money for them, the equipment would still belong to the school, not the LEA.

hotchop

Thank you for all your responses.

No, the amount of children has not decreased. What is hapening though is that SN children are being intergrated back into mainstream education in their own communities, in their own schools, but that if for another thread.

We are trying to protect all the equipment that the parents of my school have bought over time and not have them deployed to other schools.. whiteboards worth £2K, computers at £500 a pop etc

I am still trying to find some documentation with any sort of guidelines which difinativley says that it is the school that owns these items rather than the LEA.

Thank you again for your replies

DVardysShadow

Write to LEA and ask what will happen to the equipment under Freedom of Information. It might make them think twice.

mandragora_2

copy your county councillor in on the correspondence -and your MP too, while you're at it, making sure you note it at the bottom of the letter. Send it to a named official, for their personal attention - I'd probably go for Director of Education or Chief Executive. I'm sure you'll explain your points/questions clearly, and set out what you want them to do in repsonse, and by when.