Declaration of gifts from parents to teaching staff

Jpmpmummy

Hi, 

We have been told we need to legally tell our heads/finance of all the gifts we get from parents at Christmas and end of year. Can someone tell me if this is actually a legal requirement as I am going round in circles on the HMRC site, and if they literally want me listing things like one child gave me a hand drawn picture, one gave me a hot chocolate stirrer etc. 

Thanks in advance. 

ACG

We have a gifts register which we apparently need. Literally nothing gets done with it, but in saying that gifts are usually limited to a bottle of booze/crate of beer or box of chocolates. If someone received a gift for £100 we might need to look into it, but I will deal with it when the time comes. 

I think it is just to ensure you are not being bribed to give any children extra attention etc. 

I dont think they want to know about a picture unless the kid is Banksy. It will be gifts with a value I assume. Speak to your ilne manager or whatever the term in in schools. 

Marcon

A FOI request makes (moderately) interesting reading: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/gifts_given_my_parents_to_teache

ReadingTim

The legal requirement will stem from the 2010 Bribery Act, but the school should have some sort of gifts and hospitality policy which you must adhere to, the basic purpose of which is to protect you and the school from accusations of bribery - ie that you're not being unlawfully incentivised or rewarded for (say) better exam results, or more attention in class.  

A good policy should have some level of materiality or a de minimus threashold below which gifts don't have to be declared as well as an indication of proportionality as to what is, and isn't acceptable - a drawing by a child is fine, a drawing by Banksy is not (as someone already mentioned!), a bottle of prosecco is fine, a case of Moet is not.  

However, if you've been asked to declare everything you've been given then painful as it might be recording who gave you what, then that's what you're going to have to do, and kicking up a fuss as to what the "legal requirements" are simply makes it look like you're trying to hide something.  Sorry if this isn't what you wanted to hear.  

TBagpuss

Yes, I agree with ReadingTim .
Wehre I work, we have a gifts and hospitality policy -

No gifts of money (or equivalent such asgift vouchers) can be adccetped under any circumstnaces
Gifts worth below £20 don't have to be recorded, so a box of choclates, bottle of wine r a small bunch of flowers is fine and doesn't need to be reported
Larger gifts need to be reported and the Co,pliance Officer has to sign off to confirm they can be kept and to record why

our policy also sets our examples of what is and isn't likely to be acceptable (e.g. a small gift from a client when you complete the work for the, normally fine. A large or unusual gift from someone who isn't a client or where we are doing ongoing work might be more of an issue. 
A gift like sweets or a hamper at christmas from asupplire would be OK, tickets to an expensive event would need more scrutiny, and so forth.

I suspect that someone st your school may have misunderstood the requirements and had a bit of a panicbut in the short term at least, if they are saying you have to declare eveything then do that , but you could query it and suggest that the policy is rviewed and sets our exceptions (I would have thought that for teaching, a de minimus that small gifts at the edn of term are OK, gifts worth over £xx or made at other times have to be reported.

molerat

Someone has obviously covered their backside as is normal these days.  Declare all gifts then nothing can fall on their head, set a limit and if something goes wrong it could come back on them.

x_raphael_xx

My brother works very closely one-on-one with his clients, and is sometimes gifted items. He needs to report each gift, I assume to cover himself and his workplace if there was a claim against coercion or something. 
He found it funny when he had to declare a package of raw fish from one of his clients who was an avid fisherman.

TELLIT01

If the school hasn't defined what has to be reported I would list every item, no matter how small.  Not because I thought it necessary, but to get whoever put the notice out to get their act together.  A list of pictures from pupils might have that effect.

DullGreyGuy

Its common to register any gifts received or sent other than to colleagues. As others have said its to do with laws around bribery.

Every organisation I've worked at/with has had a minimum under which a gift didnt have to be declared and a maximium that you could accept without asking someone else for permission. Some were very low, a banking client was £0 for reporting and £50 for accepting. Most were more like £50 for reporting and £100 for permission but the most generous was £150 for reporting and £300 for permission. 

The school needs to be able to defend itself if Parent A alleges Kid B only got an A/9 (or whatever scale these things are done on now) because their parents gave the teacher a new car for Xmas

An ex-colleague took it very seriously and even returned spam mail that contained a free pen sent to him at work to avoid having to declare it.