Recovering debt from parents: what to do

The cost-of-living crisis is affecting many schools and families, and you may be seeing an increase in parents failing to pay for school lunches, trips and other costs. This is a difficult topic for schools and there's no easy answer.

You will need to be sensitive to personal circumstances when you communicate with parents about debt recovery at this time. But it's still important that you're clear, so everyone know where they stand. See our template letters further down this page.

Set out your expectations in a policy 

If they don't, they may still set rules on how to manage debts that you should reflect in your policy, so consult any financial