Paid Work

[Cliff_Promise]

I was talking to a contractor earlier this week and they told me at one of the other schools they've previously worked at, the site manager there does work for the school and they paid him for it. For instance - he hung some new doors, painted a classroom, fitted some worktops in the staffroom.

Wondered if anyone else had seen or heard of this? First I've heard of it, but I've not been in the game that long.

[thecaretaker]

I thought those jobs were part of the job. Usually done during holidays or half terms.

Comes under the bit in your job description "...and any other reasonable tasks the head teacher asks you to do."

Unless the site manager paid for the doors/paint/shelves himself and the school reimbursed him.

[greenjack]

Seems unlikely!

[Cliff_Promise]

Essentially he quoted the school a price to complete some works and they paid him it. He was the contractor in this instance.

First I've ever heard of it!

[eggy]

Have worked with a couple of caretakers who thought that they could quote for work.
When it was explained that if they were capable of doing something they were expected to do it in their working hours.
A different assistant caretaker would only do the basics. His reasoning was that everything that he had learned in different rolls & courses that he had paid for, that he should get paid for.
He seperatley was running his own cleaning business.

[Leatherface]

I’ve only been doing this 3 months or so and if I ran it like that I’d be very well off already. As already stated it is accepted that it’s all part of the job.

Good luck to him though

[Handyman]

Never heard of that, I have seen a few job adverts where it says the salary is £x or £x + y if the applicant is a qualified tradesperson but as for quoting for jobs within the school? Not sure what tasks you would actually do as part of your normal salary if you could do that, possibly it saves the school money somehow but I don't know how it would work, I can imagine the reaction from my HT and BM if I tried that.

[gadget300]

We never had time to do the portable appliance testing, and also the school needed a lot of out of hours electrical work.

I submitted a quote/tender for various projects over the years. The HT or BM approved them on a case by case basis and as I had keys and codes we were good, so I “worked for the school” for unlock and lock and got paid for this by the school in hours, I then was a contractor and was paid from invoice for other works. I had someone with me to combat lone working and to lighten the load. I was cheaper than most contractors, knew the building inside out and made lots of money - win win. Don’t think many places could offer that and I do miss that part of the job doing the extras.

[Keyolder]

I reckon I’ve probably decorated 90% of the school over the years and glossed dozens of doors when a class colour change was in motion. Skirting boards and door frames were also an ongoing task plus outside benches and furniture using linseed oil or Ronseal. As mentioned above all carried out during school holidays on basic pay.

[Nail]

I used to work somewhere (not a school) that the maintenance team wouldn't do much in the week but then had management convinced that they needed to be paid overtime at a higher rate to come in at weekends to do more work. What a joke!

I've also known a caretaker that refused to do any maint work / decorating because he says that he wasn't actually asked if he was capable of doing it at interview so he shouldn't be expected to do any. What another joke!

[steveg]

Essentially it shouldn't ever happen, there are too many conflicts of interest.

- A lot of caretakers will be designated controller of premises - they will be in charge of overseeing contractors and ensuring work is completed to a high standard, you cannot do this if you are the contractor.
- As an employee of the school you would have access to information which would give an unfair advantage when quoting for work
- Most caretakers are unlikely to have £10 million of public liability insurance when self employed (I know some will if running a business as well)
- You would essentially end up checking your own risk assessment and method statement for work

Audit would have a field day if they discovered a school doing it.

If there is extra work that needs doing outside of school hours it should always be as paid overtime or toil, so covered by the schools insurance and completed within the remit of the job.