Commenting on the new entitlement to free school meals for all children in households on Universal Credit, Dr Tammy Campbell, Director for Early Years, Inequalities and Wellbeing at the Education Policy Institute said:
“We have previously called for the expansion of free school meal eligibility to those with higher incomes so this move is welcome.
The key issue will be how many additional children this will support. To the best of our knowledge, the Department for Education 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. It will be important to monitor the data to track how this plays out, and to continue to consider other changes to welfare benefit entitlements that could lift children out of poverty, including the abolition of the ‘two child limit.
Implementation and access are also important. Our research shows that many families currently entitled to FSM are not registered for their entitlement. This is particularly a problem in the early years and at the beginning of primary school. Alongside many others, including the Education Select Committee, we have called for centralised autoenrollment to help with these barriers to access and with under-registration.
There does not appear to be a clear rationale from government as to why the new free school meal eligibility criteria will not be reflected in pupil premium eligibility. The government is clear that these children are growing up in difficult circumstances. As such they are more likely to have lower attainment and benefit from additional support in school.”
