📢 Community Petition: Fair Access to School Clubs in Fife
Petition to Fife Council: Remove School Lets Charges for Inclusive School Clubs

We, the undersigned parents, carers, and community members, call on Fife Council to urgently review its school lets policy.

Currently, clubs that charge families even a small fee are required to pay room hire charges. This increases costs for families and makes it harder for children to take part. Clubs that run for free are exempt, but those offering Pay What You Can or bursary places are penalised, despite working to reduce inequality.

This policy directly undermines the Cost of the School Day guidance, which aims to remove financial barriers to participation. By charging lets fees, the council is unintentionally excluding children from opportunities that should be accessible to all.

We note that in other Scottish councils, headteachers and parent councils are able to authorise internal school lets, allowing clubs to run without hall hire fees. This flexible approach ensures that inclusive, community-based clubs can operate sustainably while keeping costs low for families.

We also highlight that schools are entitled to use clubs provided by external providers. These partnerships bring significant benefits:

🌟 For schools: They expand the range of activities offered without adding workload or costs to staff.
🌟 For children: They provide enriching opportunities, build skills, improve wellbeing, and ensure wider participation.
🌟 For families: They reduce inequality by offering accessible, affordable activities within the school environment.

We therefore call on Fife Council to:

• Exempt inclusive, low-cost clubs from school lets charges.
• Align policy with the Cost of the School Day principles.
• Empower headteachers to authorise internal lets, as is common practice in other councils.
• Recognise the value of external providers in supporting schools and children.

Every child in Fife deserves the chance to participate in enriching activities without financial barriers.

We ask Fife Council to act now to make this possible.

Sign below to support fair access for all children in Fife.

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