Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-05-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in which local authorities 30 per cent or more pupils entitled to free school meals are not claiming them; and what steps he is taking to improve the take-up of free school meals.

Mr David Laws

The Department for Education routinely collects information on pupils who are both eligible for and claiming free school meals. This information is published in the ‘Schools, Pupils and their Characteristics, January 2013′ Statistical First Release[1]. Identifying pupils who are eligible for but not claiming free school meals is more difficult.

The Department has published a research paper – ‘Pupils not claiming free school meals: 2013′[2] – which presents estimates of the numbers and proportions of pupils who are entitled to receive free school meals but are not claiming. The paper compares registration rates for children aged between four and 15 and highlights regions and local authorities where under-registration rates are high. A table showing under registration rates by local authority can be found in the annex.

The Department has developed a free school meals Eligibility Checking System (ECS). The ECS enables local authorities to check very quickly and determine whether a parent can claim free school meals by linking benefits information from DWP, HMRC and the Home Office. It represents a significant achievement in reducing bureaucracy and cost for local authorities and encouraging more parents to sign up their children for a free school lunch. The ECS has been extended to allow parents to check their own eligibility, and to apply online, for free school meals. The new system reduces the time, stigma and bureaucracy previously associated with applications for free school meals.

Resources are also available from the Children’s Food Trust to help schools increase take-up of free school meals.[3]

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2013.
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupils-not-claiming-free-school-meals-2013.

[3]http://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/schools/resources/free-school-meals-matter-toolkit

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