Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of rising food prices and increased inflation on the ability of (a) primary and (b) secondary schools to provide free school meals; and what plans she has to review the rate paid to schools to provide free school meals to help schools mitigate the effects of the rising cost of living.

Schools pay for the provision of Free School Meals (FSM) from their core funding allocations. Overall, core schools funding, including funding for both mainstream schools and high needs, is increasing by £4 billion in 2022/23 compared to the previous year. This is a 7% increase in cash terms per pupil.

The core allocations that schools attract through the National Funding Formula (NFF) include funding in respect of Free School Meals. This is intended to broadly reflect the costs schools face in providing school meals. Following extensive consultation when the NFF was first introduced, schools attracted £440 per pupil through Free School Meals in 2018/19 and 2019/20. Each year, we set the NFF factor values to be used in the forthcoming funding year. Since the introduction of the NFF, the per pupil FSM rate has increased in line with forecast inflation in every year, as measured by the latest GDP deflator at the time.

The FSM factor is worth £470 per eligible pupil in 2022/23. This will increase to £480 in 2023/24. The factor values for each year are published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-for-schools-and-high-needs. In reviewing future FSM rates, many factors will be taken into consideration, including cost of living pressures and inflation.

The Department also spends around £600 million on Universal Infant Free School Meals each year. The per meal rate has been increased from £2.34 to £2.41, and backdated to 1 April 2022, in recognition of increased costs.

The Department continues to keep FSM eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them.