Free school meal

In the UK, a free school meal is a school meal provided to a child or young person during a school break and paid for by Government.

Qualification for a free school meal

For a child to qualify for a free school meal, their parent or carer must be receiving particular qualifying benefits as stated by Government. A child in receipt of any of these qualifying benefits in their own right is also eligible to receive free school meals.

Free school meal applications are dealt with in different ways depending on the Local Authority in which the child’s school is located. Some Local Authorities provide a centralised application process, whilst in other authorities, individual schools deal with their parents/carers application. Usually the school caterer is informed of a pupil's eligibility by the school. It is unusual for pupils or their parents to be given physical cash for a meal.

In the past, when applying for a free school meal, parents had to present evidence of their qualifying benefit, usually in the form of a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) or the Home Office. This was a slow, complex and time-consuming paper-based process. In October 2007, the Department for Education launched a pilot of the Free School Meals Eligibility Checking Service (ECS) for Local Authorities.

Local Authorities using the ECS can check applicants' eligibility without the need for claimants to submit evidence of qualifying benefits. The ECS checks against data from HMRC, DWP and Home Office to enable Local Authorities to verify a claimant's eligibility. The ECS gives Local Authorities no particular information about a claimant, it simply states whether or not a claimant is eligible. It gives no information regarding the particular type of benefit the claimant is receiving.

The ECS was rolled out to all Local Authorities in March 2008. 162 of the 174 English and Welsh Local Authorities have used the ECS. In September 2009, a ‘web service’ facility was made available on the ECS. This means that Local Authorities can now provide a seamless real-time eligibility checking service, allowing parents to apply online for free school meals in one quick, simple and easy process. Parents and Local Authorities are immediately informed of eligibility and with automated notification to schools, children can be provided with a free school meal as early as the following day. The ECS has helped Local Authorities to streamline their application processes and more importantly has helped over a million children access the benefit in a fast and efficient way.

History

The 1944 Education Act made it an entitlement for pupils to receive a free school meal. This entitlement was scaled back in 1949 when a flat charge of 2.5 pence was introduced. Over the next thirty years this flat fee was gradually increased, until in 1980, legislation was introduced to remove the requirement for Local Education Authorities to provide a meal for every pupil. Since that date, authorities have been obliged only to provide a meal to those pupils who are eligible for a free meal.

Before this, the Liberal Government of Britain introduced measures which gave power for local councils to give free meals for children from poor families in 1906. By 1914, over 158,000 children were fed free meals once everyday. However, the number was low in comparison with all the other poor children who needed free meals. In 2004 14.3% of pupils in English schools were eligible for Free School Meals

School league tables

The percentage of children eligible for free school meals in an area is thought to be a fair measure of deprivation. This figure is therefore used in conjunction with the scores children achieve in SATs, GCSEs and A-levels to determine a school's position in the local and national league tables. If two schools get their children to the same scores, the school with the most children eligible for free school meals is judged to have done a better job, as it has been likely to be teaching children with access to fewer resources and less home encouragement.

Scotland (United Kingdom)

Frances Curran MSP led a broad campaign with widespread support through many children's and anti-poverty organisations to provide free nutritious meals for all Scottish schoolchildren to tackle the problems of poor diet among Scottish schoolchildren. A bill to this effect was proposed in parliament in 2002 but was defeated. A subsequent Scottish Executive consultation which found that 96% of respondents were in favour of free school meals. The SNP introduced free school meals for the first three years of primary schooling as a pilot project in 2007.

Problems

Free school meals can be seen as stigmatising to those pupils involved; studies have shown that many of those entitled to free meals do not take them and it can have a negative effect on those that do. Another problem is that not all those children who could benefit from the scheme qualify for it. Organisations such as the Child Poverty Action Group have called for school meals to be made free for all pupils to tackle the problems mentioned above. Tests of these free-school-meal-to-all programs have been funded by Share Our Strength in some school districts in the United States of America.

See also

• Reduced price meal
• School Food Trust

References

• "Free School Meals". Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Retrieved 22 July 2006.

• "Campaign for Free School Meals". Child Poverty Action Group. Retrieved 18 February 2006.
• Consultation on Free School Meals Bill

• Will McMahon, Tim Marsh (1999). Filling the Gap: free school meals, nutrition and poverty. Child Poverty Action Group. p. 48. ISBN 1-901698-25-4.