10 March 2005
A new Internet tool designed to facilitate collection of dinner money is to be installed in schools for disabled children, freeing teachers from the onerous task of administrating lunch money.
Coventry City Council's Index Team has agreed a deal with Capita Education Services to initially supply 98 schools with the SIMS Dinner Money IT system.
SIMS Dinner Money works using the morning's registration information to produce a daily catering return based on the number of pupils in school and their normal meal choice.
Payments are then deducted automatically from a pupil's balance and can generate statements or payment overdue letters to be sent to parents.
Sue Kinnaird, IT support manager with the Index Team, said the pilot scheme had proved successful.
"Dinner money collections which had previously taken administrators and teachers hours over the course of a week, were completed in minutes," she told PublicTechnology.net.
Sean Massey, services director with Capita, also emphasised the system's time-saving features.
"It will help ensure that teachers, assistants and school office staff have more time to focus on the most important task of all - providing a quality teaching and learning environment for their pupils," Mr Massey stated.
The system is to implemented under the National Agreement on Workforce Reform, which seeks to reduce the time teachers have to spend on administrative tasks.© DeHavilland Information Services plc
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