CONTRACTS...SCHOOL CONTRACTS THE COVID SCHOOL CONTRACTS DILEMMA
from those councils continuing to pay 100 per cent for their school contracts, the range of payment levels goes from 50 per cent to 75 per cent to 80 per cent, depend- ing on where you’re based.
However, the main controversy is about the amount the operators/suppliers are actually paying their drivers – this can be anything from 100 per cent of what they normally get (putting aside the amounts kept by the operator for reasonable overheads), down to 25 per cent, down further to nothing.
Having been made aware of these anoma- lies, there was a further series of PPN notices issued, which stipulated such things as “an open book policy”. Some councils then stipulated that in order for the suppli- er(s) to continue to receive payment, they must provide evidence that they are indeed paying the relevant drivers what they are due. This has caused ructions all over the place, to the extent that some operators have just said “forget it” and cancelled the contract(s) altogether.
This leads to the next development: When schools reopen ‘properly’ across the board, and the country attempts to settle into the “new normal”, what will happen with these hundreds and thousands of school con- tracts? We venture to say that there will be fewer drivers, fewer vehicles and a huge drop in the ability to fulfil those contracts for a start… already many have left the trade altogether and do not intend to re-license their vehicles.
Many councils share a further concern along these lines: that this would leave councils with no transport for children when schools reopen – potentially leading to problems finding new suppliers. This was written into the very same PPN notices where it stated clearly that payments should be made in order to ensure that there was a service still available once schools could reopen.
But in the meantime, those drivers who wish to continue to work are striving for what they believe they are due from their opera- tor for even being available to do these school contracts – and in some cases have indeed been fulfilling them, transporting children of key workers.
STIRRING STUFF When the first news item was posted on
JUNE 2020
the PHTM Facebook page, about North Ayrshire paying suppliers 75 per cent of their normal school contract rate, this prompted a large reaction from readers. Then an item from the Telegraph and Argue was posted on Facebook, saying that union leaders told the council that any firms in Kirklees that were not passing on pay- ments to their school contract drivers should have their licence revoked. The council replied that withdrawing a licence could be “unnecessarily punitive” as all employed drivers would then lose their jobs. A review of the situation was promised by the council.
As the NPHTA, we have written in many reviews and letters in conjunction with sev- eral other associations in order to provide a localised support structure, since we found such a huge variation in the approaches being taken by local authorities and educa- tion sectors.
Some were using the “open book policy” to insist on full bank accounting details of the operators (confidential information).
Some were deducting the premises grants (£10k) from the payments (building rents, electric gas, water etc have no bearing on the running costs of vehicles, so mixing the two together, a bit like corned beef and custard).
Some were deducting furlough payments made to PAYE employees from the pay- ments, which then had an impact on the overall payments made, which resulted in underpayments. (Phone receptionists, cleaners, advertising staff etc have no bear- ing on drivers’ incomes, a bit like taking a chef’s wages out of the mechanic’s salary.)
Some were demanding accounts details for all payments made, to whom, and how much. (Serious breaches of GDPR there)
Some were even deducting UC credit pay- ments. (Literally taking the food off the table before you have even had chance to cook it)
None of them seemed to understand the basic principle of the need for paying as normal in order to make sure that the vehi- cles and drivers were indeed still around to make sure kids could actually get back to schools once they opened.
OK, so referring back to the opening para- graphs of this article:
For those only paying 50% of the payments, in essence they have run the risk of an oper- ator running with 50 vehicles for school contracts being halved down to 25 vehicles and drivers due to the lack of payments and retaining services.
As explained in the beginning, social dis- tancing now applies, requiring potentially 200 vehicles and drivers; four times more than was originally required, but eight times more than are now available……so now what? Where are those extra drivers and vehicles going to come from?
Which refers us back to section 1; and the very principle of the PPN notices which reads:
Issue 1. This Procurement Policy Note (PPN) sets out information and guidance for public bodies on payment of their sup- pliers to ensure service continuity during and after the current coronavirus, Covid-19, outbreak. Contracting authorities must act now to ensure suppliers at risk are in a position to resume normal contract deliv- ery once the outbreak is over.
So you can see the hornet’s nest of contro- versy surrounding this situation. Now have a read of some of the comments this subject has provoked. We have protected the anonymity of the people commenting to avoid any repercussions:
Mr R: Lancashire The company I work for under Lancashire CC who are paying 100% are using the con- tract money to subsidise all the cars subs, even cars who don’t do school contracts, they are in breach of the guidelines laid down by the council!!
Mr L: Leicester I was told Leicester county council are pay- ing nothing
F M: Some operators are keeping the money and telling drivers to claim furlough and pocket- ing the money saying it's a contract between council and operator; not the driver.
M F: If drivers do school runs on a regular basis and the council is still paying the company then that money should go to the driver that does the runs
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