Dear Parents/Carers
Free School Meals Voucher Scheme:
We hope you and your families are keeping well and are safe.
We have received a lot of e-mails from parents about issues with Free School Meal (FSM) vouchers. We are sending this update in the hope it resolves many of your questions.
Select Edenred – National Scheme:
Please note there have been problems with the national scheme which is being administered by Select Edenred. We have been putting in orders however, owing to national demand Select Edenred have struggled to fulfil orders in a timely manner.
Please bear with the situation as a number of parents across the Country have been impacted. We are trying to resolve as many issues as we can with Edenred but wish to advise that the delay in issuing the vouchers is not something the school has any control over. When we try and contact Edenred on your behalf we too are being faced with lengthy call waiting times. Edenred have been working a week behind in the orders we have put in so far.
Edenred have also recently made further improvements to their website which should help all parties going forward.
Free School Meal Voucher Orders:
So far the following vouchers have been ordered by the school:
· Voucher 1 sent through Tesco which was e-mailed to parents on 26 March. £15.00 voucher(s) issued separately for each eligible child.
· Voucher 2 for week commencing 30 March was issued through Select Edenred. The second voucher was e-mailed to parents between 9 and 10 April. The e-mail containing the voucher was sent from: noreply@edenred.co.uk.
· Voucher 3 for week commencing 6 April was delivered by Edenred between 14 and 17 April.
· Going forward we will be ordering three weeks’ worth of vouchers together to try and ensure the voucher distribution process is more quicker. Vouchers covering week commencing 13 April, 20 April, and 27 April will be with parents before the end of next week.
Steps to take to locate the voucher e-mails:
Please carefully check your inbox, junk, promotions, and deleted items folder (in case you have deleted the e-mail in error) for the first three voucher e-mails. We have received confirmation to say the first three vouchers have been issued. A number of parents have contacted school to say they have not received the Edenred vouchers but have subsequently gone on to locate the e-mail(s) in their spam/promotions folders. Please do not use your mail box search option to locate the e-mail. A physical scroll through of the folders is needed; the search field may not necessarily pick up the e-mail if it is in your e.g spam folder. If after taking these steps you do not locate the e-mail(s) from Edenred please let us know by e-mailing info@wittonpark.org.uk. In the e-mail please provide: your child’s name along with details of which vouchers have been received and, which you are still waiting to receive. This detail will enable us to respond to your enquiry quickly.
National Voucher Scheme – key points:
- The voucher value is £15.00 per child each week
- Under the Select Edenred scheme parents receive one voucher covering all eligible pupils in the household. For example, where there are two children in the household one voucher for £30.00 will be issued for each week
- Upon receipt of the voucher e-mail, please follow the instructions in the covering e-mail on how to redeem the voucher code
- Voucher codes should be redeemed within one month of receipt otherwise the code will expire
- Expired codes cannot be reissued
- The Select Edenred scheme allows you to select which supermarket you would like to spend the voucher at
- Once you have chosen the relevant supermarket you will then receive a further e-mail containing the voucher
- To avoid any issues please do not split the voucher between different supermarkets
- Given the demand levels it can take a number of attempts for you to redeem the voucher code on Select Edenred’s website. It can also take between three and six hours for you to receive the voucher for your chosen supermarket. We have no control over the website response time.
- Vouchers can be used for online delivery but you may struggle to obtain a delivery slot therefore our advice is to use the voucher at your local supermarket
- The vouchers can only be used to purchase food/groceries.
The attached FAQ document contains further details about the voucher scheme https://www.edenred.co.uk/Documents/DfE/DfE_FreeSchoolMeals_ParentCarerFAQs.pdf
Thank you for your continued patience and co-operation with this matter.
Regards,
Witton Park Academy
Date: 21 April 2020
