School trip refund

bexybest

StandingInTheSun said:

Unfortunately the school does not have your money and therefore if you pursue them for it back, keep in mind you are taking money away from already hugely stretched school budgets.

By all means pursue this course of action but don't complain if the school has to make cuts as a result of paying out all of these parents money they don't even have.

Your beef here is with the travel company and the insurers, not the school.

But OP's contract is with the school, who in turn have a contract with the trip company & insurers. Both OP and the school will have to do their respective chasing but the OP can't contact the insurers direct, so having beef with them is pointless.

s4ndr4

The school won't say which insurers were used but will chase up and see if it is PGL - thank you all for your comments

rachsecret

43722 said:

Respectfully i disagree with the above post. I need to repeat, I am a layperson, not a professional in relation to such matters. I did work in schools all my working life. Schools have changed greatly since I left if they are no longer interested in working with parents and carers, and are solely concerned with budgets. The school budget is not your concern. The school ( i assume) promoted the trip to parents. The school needs to repay you, either directly, or via restitution from the travel company or trip insurers.

Crikey! That's a bit of a sweeping statement! I work at a very senior level across several schools and can assure you that in the schools I work, and indeed others that I know, this is certainly not the case. Schools core business is a) children, b) families, and the budget is merely the mechanism to be able to do this.
PGL is a school holiday company that has refused to refund schools and, as pervious posters have stated, has behaved terribly throughout this period. I can almost guarantee that the HT will be doing everything they can to secure a refund, but at this time may simply not be able to confirm anything.
Most insurance comes from either the LA(local authority) procured company or if it is an academy RPA, which is run by the government. I suggest the OP takes it up with either of these two bodies. Schools simply don't have any 'spare money' and most are looking at huge deficit budgets. It is likely that if for a class of 30 children the loss is around 9k, which is a substantial amount to find for a school. 

43722

Respectfully, again I disagree. There is no sweeping statement in my previous post. At least none that I can see. Firstly as far as I can see, PGL is not yet confirmed as the Activity Company concerned, so that may actually be best left alone right now. Secondly, one contributor suggested that a school leader might consider banning a child from a future activity, if a parent/carer sought a refund here. I think that's unsustainable nonsense. Thirdly, another contributor suggested that any refunds could damage the school budget. leading to staff cuts. I do not agree. The school promoted the Activity. The Activity did not happen. The parent/carer is owed a refund. If the money can come from the Activity Company, or insurance, all well and good.  If necessary however, the school may need to consider reimbursing the parents. I am not sure where your sum of around 9K comes from, I hope that it isn't a sweeping statement.

rachsecret

43722 said:

Respectfully, again I disagree. There is no sweeping statement in my previous post. At least none that I can see. Firstly as far as I can see, PGL is not yet confirmed as the Activity Company concerned, so that may actually be best left alone right now. Secondly, one contributor suggested that a school leader might consider banning a child from a future activity, if a parent/carer sought a refund here. I think that's unsustainable nonsense. Thirdly, another contributor suggested that any refunds could damage the school budget. leading to staff cuts. I do not agree. The school promoted the Activity. The Activity did not happen. The parent/carer is owed a refund. If the money can come from the Activity Company, or insurance, all well and good.  If necessary however, the school may need to consider reimbursing the parents. I am not sure where your sum of around 9K comes from, I hope that it isn't a sweeping statement.

9k= 30 (average class size ) x£300 that the OP says they have paid. Not a sweeping statement, but a lot of money for a school to find if they reimburse the whole class.

'Schools have changed greatly since I left if they are no longer interested in working with parents and carers, and are solely concerned with budgets.' This comment in your post was what I have an issue with. It is a sweeping statement to suggest that schools may no longer be interested in working with parents and carers. 

Absolutely agree that the refund should come from either the company or the insurer. Schools simply do not have spare money. After staffing costs, utilities etc, most schools usually have around 25k left in their annual budget to spend on resources eg books, consumables, photocopying etc. 9k out of this would greatly impact the whole school. 

Also agree that no child would/could be banned from an activity. This would actually be illegal and would classify as an exclusion and discrimination. 

43722

The OP mentioned that there were 12 pupils on the trip. We do not know how much the trip cost.
The bigger issue though, is the implication in at least one post that parents/carers should not put the school budget in jeopardy. The state of school budgets is a national political issue.  Parents/ Carers are entitled to a refund if an event does not take place.
The state of the school budget has nothing directly to do with the issue of refunds. Clearly it will be better all round if a refund is issued by the Travel Company.

[Deleted User]

Of course the state of the school budget has everything to do with the issue of refunds!   Don't understand your reasoning.  If the money parents have paid has been handed over to a third party then a school with little budget will not have the funds readily available for refund.....blood/stone springs to mind.     I, too wouldn't push the school but wait until they can claim it back from whoever they have paid it over to.     BUT as has been said, it is up to OP what she does.  

43722

If i paid for a child to go on a school activity, and that activity did not happen, I would be seeking redress either from the school, from the Travel Company or the Insurance. If a school told me that it had budget difficulties that is not an argument that would impress me.