furlough | Schools Week

Caterer Compass repays furlough cash after free school meal parcel row

A multinational catering firm at the centre of the free school meal parcel fiasco has announced plans to repay millions in furlough cash and serve more plant-based meals. Official figures published this month show Compass Services UK claimed between £12.5 million and £25 million between December and February alone to pay staff wages. Data has […]

School claimed furlough cash then gave £64k payout to head

A junior school that claimed nearly £100,000 of furlough cash because of the “dramatic and potentially catastrophic” financial impact of Covid made a £64,000 redundancy payment to its executive headteacher. Accounts for St Stephen’s Junior School, a single-academy trust in Canterbury, Kent, show that executive headteacher Stuart Pywell was made redundant in August, and sent […]

Private school furlough claim not ‘in spirit of scheme’

The country’s biggest academy trust furloughed staff across its private schools for the Christmas holiday, a tactic one law firm advises is “unlikely to be within the spirit of the scheme”. United Learning, which has 74 academies and 14 private schools, applied for public funds to pay teacher salaries from December 12 to January 4, […]

Another exam board offers payments instead of furlough

Another exam board has offered pay-offs instead of furlough for some examiners, while committing to returning savings from unspent exam fees back to schools. In an email to examiners, Pearson said it was not using the government’s furlough scheme because it “believes it has been put in place to protect primarily small and medium-sized business”. […]

Coronavirus: David Ross Education Trust furloughs dozens of staff

Dozens of staff at one of England’s largest academy trusts are to be furloughed on full pay, Schools Week has learned. The David Ross Education Trust, founded by millionaire Tory donor and Carphone Warehouse founder David Ross, claims it is only furloughing staff “whose roles are funded by the external income that we rely upon to fund […]