Expansion of free school meals widely welcomed

The Department for Education has announced an expansion of eligibility for free school meals (FSM), a move that the government says will see half a million more children benefiting. However there have been calls for more detail on how the government has calculated that figure.

Since 2018, children have only been eligible for FSM if their household income is less than £7,400 per year. This will change from the start of the 2026/27 academic year, when pupils from every household in receipt of Universal Credit (UC) will be entitled to FSM. There will also be an end to the ‘transitional protections’ - also introduced in 2018 - whereby pupils who were eligible for FSM before or after 1 April 2018 continue to receive free meals, even if their family's circumstances have changed.  These were introduced to prevent families from losing their FSM entitlement due to changes in the income-based benefits system as UC was implemented. 

Commenting on the phasing out of those protections, Dr Tammy Campbell, director for early years, inequalities and wellbeing at the Education Policy Institute, said: ‘To the best of our knowledge, the DfE has not fully assessed the number of children who will cease to be eligible for FSM as a result of the conclusion of transitional protections. It is possible that the extension of eligibility will largely serve to balance out the cessation of transitional protections, rather than making significant numbers of children newly eligible.’

At the time of writing, the government have not confirmed the precise funding or costs of the new arrangements. However, analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), suggests that in the long run the new FSM eligibility will cost about £1 billion (at today's prices) and benefit 1.7 million children between Year 3 and Year 11. The long-run impact would see around 100,000 children lifted out of poverty. According to the IFS the effect of the transitional protections is that ‘many more children are currently receiving free school meals than would otherwise be the case’. As a result they say that, in the short term, both the initial costs and the initial impact of the policy will be much lower.

The new FSM eligibility criteria will also break the link between the FSM threshold and Pupil Premium (PP) funding. PP is currently paid to schools for every pupil who has been eligible for FSM at any point in the previous six years. In future, instead of expanding in line with the new FSM eligibility, PP will continue to be based on the current £7,400 household earnings threshold. This ‘two-tier’ system may also mean additional administration for schools. In terms of administration the DfE said it expects the majority of schools to allow parents to apply for FSM before the start of the 2026 school year by providing their national insurance number to check their eligibility. However school food campaigner Andy Jolley called this a ‘missed opportunity to introduce auto-enrolment.’ He added: ‘There is a risk some families will fall through the gap and not register, whilst schools will be concerned there is a new expectation on them to process parents’ national insurance details.’

Mr Jolley did welcome the eligibility expansion as a ‘really positive move’ and education secretary Bridget Phillipson MP also hailed it, saying: ‘We believe that background shouldn’t mean destiny. Today’s historic step will help us to deliver excellence everywhere, for every child and give more young people the chance to get on in life.’

There were also warm words from Nick Harrison, CEO of the Sutton Trust: ‘This is a significant step towards taking hunger out of the classroom. Children can’t learn effectively when hungry, so this announcement not only helps to tackle the effects of child poverty, but will also likely help improve education outcomes for disadvantaged young people.’