ParentPay: Cashless payment systems for schools

South Lanarkshire Council is currently rolling out an online payment system across all schools and nurseries to provide online payments for parents.  The new system is called ParentPay.   

ParentPay will provide a more convenient, secure way for parents to pay online for school meals, school trips and other school activities. ParentPay has been successfully piloted in 8 schools since   August 2015. And is now successfully rolling out to the remaining schools and nurseries in South Lanarkshire Council.

As part of the ParentPay rollout your school will be working towards being a cash-free environment.  Parents who need to continue making payments by cash may do so using the PayPoint network at local convenience stores. 

ParentPay offers you the freedom to make payments whenever and wherever you like, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - safe in the knowledge that the technology used is of the highest internet security available.

Parents will be issued with a pre-launch pack advising about the roll out of ParentPay.  They will also be issued with an Activation Letter and ‘How to create an Account’ guidance note. This will ask Parents to create a secure online account, activated using a unique ‘myaccount’ username and password.  ‘myaccount’ is a free and secure sign-in service for accessing public services online in Scotland. Parents who have children in nursery, primary and secondary school can create a single account login for all their children.

Making a payment for school meals and trips, etc is straightforward and ParentPay holds a payment history for you to view at a later date; no card details are stored in any part of the system. Once you’ve activated your account you can make online payments straight away.

Parents who wish to continue to make cash payments will be asked to do so through PayPoint.  PayPoint payments are recorded by ParentPay and can be seen by logging into their ParentPay account and viewing their payment history online. Parents should notify the school if they wish to use the PayPoint facility. A plastic PayPoint card will then be requested and issued to parents to make cash payments for school meals at local PayPoint stores. The first card is free of charge; however, any lost or damaged cards will be charged at an additional cost.  Payment cards take about two weeks to arrive but we can issue a barcode letter as an interim measure. 

Trip and activity information letters will carry a unique barcode which will allow parents to make cash payments at your local PayPoint store.

Any trips planned, where a payment is required, will be activated on ParentPay, this will allow parents to see all trips relevant to their child, payments to date and any amounts outstanding and monies due. 

For those pupils who take school meals, once their ParentPay account has been activated, parents can pre-pay for school meals for their child.  

We ask that support and promote the introduction of ParentPay to help us in achieving our goal to become a cashless environment, avoiding the need for children to carry cash to school and improving school security.