Frequently asked questions
School Meals Online FAQs
1.) What’s different?
There is nothing really different about the process, parents can buy 10 or more meals or tickets on line and you are notified by e-mail of their purchases, so hopefully less parents queuing up in the office at the start of the week, allowing you to deal with other things!
2.) What information will I get?
You will receive a report that gives you the name and year group of the child for whom the meals have been purchased, the numbers of meals purchased and the cost, and when the purchase was made.
3.) How often will I get the information?
At present the purchase report will be produced weekly at 0800 on a Monday morning and emailed to you to arrive by 0900 so it is available for the start of week administration. Extra reports will run after holidays.
We will consult on possible enhancements to this system.
4.) What paperwork do I have do and is it different to what I do now?
This system offers an alternative means of paying for meals so there is no new paperwork you will simply receive a weekly report detailing who has purchased meals.
If you use :
Tickets - simply issue the appropriate number of tickets.
Registers - credit the meals purchased in the register.
5.) What if I pay DCCS to administer the meals, can I be part of this system?
Yes. The report of purchases will be emailed to you, and you can then pass it on.
6.) What do I do if a child wants a meal during the week and the parents didn’t buy any meals/tickets at the start of the week?
You can accept cash or cheques. However you may want to discourage ad hoc purchases because they are disproportionately time consuming.
7.) We provide our own meals; can parents pay on line?
Yes the system is for all except cash cafeterias, we will just need to know the cost of your meals and a finance code.
8.) Do I need a website?
No. Parents can directly access the DCC site from http://shop.devon.gov.uk.
9.) What should I tell parents?
In order to minimise the work load for you we have prepared a letter for you to send out to parents 
(27KB - pdf help) advising them of the facility.
This directs parents to the shopping basket website but if you want them to use your site please amend as appropriate.
10.) What do I do about coding?
Codes are maintained by the provider so DCCS supplied meals will be credited to them and unless you are a self performing school you need do nothing.
Self performing schools we will credit the school meals income code.
11.) We are a self performing school how will we receive our money?
Card payments take about 3 working days to reach the DCC bank account. They will be allocated and appear in the download to FMS for reconciliation in the normal way.
12.) Can I accept online payments in school?
Logistically this could be very difficult, as school offices tend to be very busy, and there are also practical reasons why parents should not access school computers.
13.) Why should we promote this system to parents?
School Offices are very busy places, so anything that can free up time must be of benefit to the school and school staff. Across Devon an estimated £1M of staff time is spent counting meals money.
Using this system does offer improved security and helps prevent bad debt from accumulating as the payment is authorised by the card issuer at the time of purchase.
14.) Do Parents have to buy on line?
No: inevitably there will be some parents who wish to pay for meals using cash or cheque. They will continue to be able to do so. The online system is a means of giving parents choice as to how and when they purchase their child’s school meals.
15.) Why Debit Cards rather than Credit Cards?
Some schools may not feel happy about encouraging parents to use credit cards, however how the meal is paid for ultimately a matter of parental choice. We are looking at the policy on this.
16.) Do I need to separately receipt the monies received?
No. When you receive the report you enter the value of meals purchased into either your registers or other meals admin record, the report you are sent is evidence of the cash received. If you prefer not to print it can be retained electronically.
17.) What’s in this for us as a school?
Parents will be able to purchase blocks of tickets/meals at times to suit them. So offering meals purchases online will ease the pressure on the school office at the start of the week. It will avoid those other interruptions when parents pop in at times that are not necessarily convenient.
By not having to count money it will save staff time.
It will not suit every parent, but will, hopefully, assist in reducing the amount of cash that has to be counted before Securicor arrive!
Less cash on hand is a security bonus.
Parents are consumers too and meeting their needs could help build their relationship with you.
Making it easier to pay helps promote take up of meals and reduces debt chasing and things such as bounced cheques.
18.) Why can’t Parents pay for other things (uniforms, trips) online?
The Shopping Basket has progressed beyond its’ pilot phase with meals in a limited number of schools and we will be working with the pilot schools to extend the products available.
19.) Refunds
It is a legal requirement that credit is not converted to cash. Therefore online payments need to be refunded by the same means. During office hours please phone the Revenue Team on 01392 382780 or 383109 or contact them by e-mail.
At end of term or if a pupil leaves minor sums (less than £5) for payments made by debit card may be refunded.
20.) How do I get help?
Problems with the report contact the ePayments team.
Problems with meals admin contact your support officer via the Helpline 01392 385300
