Free School Meals: Registration

(asked on 4th March 2024) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will provide data sets to (a) City of York Council and (b) each other local authority showing levels of under-registration for free school meals.


Answered by
Damian Hinds Portrait
Damian Hinds
Minister of State (Education)
This question was answered on 7th March 2024

Maximising the take-up of free school meals (FSM) is important in ensuring that as many eligible children as possible benefit from a healthy and nutritious meal. The department aims to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.

To support this, an ‘Eligibility Checking System’ has been provided to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities.

The department does not routinely collect information on the proportion of pupils that may be entitled to FSM but do not make a claim, and so is not currently in a position to provide data-sets on levels of under-registration for FSM.

The department has looked at the issue of under-registration and considers there to be merit in local authorities exploring initiatives to maximise take up and to better understand the barriers that prevent such take up, whilst ensuring adherence to legal and data protection constraints.

The department is currently aware of a number of different approaches being trialled by local authorities to maximise take up of FSM. The department has not provided formal guidance to support these activities, nor has the department endorsed any particular approach to increasing FSM take-up for benefits-related FSM and universal approaches, but the department continues to engage with key stakeholders on this issue.

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