Councils call on Government to fix free school meal enrolment as part of Children's Wellbeing Bill

Sustain is pleased to join almost 100 organisations in an open letter to Government calling for the 470,000 children in England who meet the eligibility criteria for Free School Meals (FSM), but who are currently not signed up, to be automatically enrolled so that they don’t miss out on a hot, nutritious meal at lunchtime. The letter to Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson and Secretary of State for Welfare and Pensions Liz Kendall, who are also co-chairing the goverment's Child Poverty Taskforce, was co-ordinated by the Fix our Food programme, the Food Foundation and Bremner & Co.

The letter - which has nearly 100 signatories, including representatives from 24 local authorities as well as schools, charities and universities - implores Government to use the upcoming Children’s Wellbeing Bill to enable all children who are entitled to a free school meal to be automatically enrolled.  Free school meals are a statutory scheme, and so the government funding for these children to be signed up should already exist.

Sustain's Director of Policy and Advocacy Glen Tarman said:

“Sustain backs the call to the government to put in place a national auto-enrolment system for Free School Meals, building on the pioneering work of councils with local pilots, which have demonstrated both the need and impact for such measures.

The Children’s Wellbeing Bill, with its aim to ensure that every child has a fulfilling childhood, enabling them to succeed and thrive, should be brought forward with such a provision. This way Parliament can make sure children are accessing the nutritious meals they are entitled to without the barriers a huge number of families currently face which deny them that, and while giving them the freedom to opt out if they wish.”

Only children from households with earnings below £7,400 a year (after tax, before benefits) are entitled to the government’s FSM scheme in England. Shockingly, there are hundreds of thousands of children who meet the government’s criteria to qualify for free school meals, but who are still missing out.

These families face a range of barriers to signing up that could be easily overcome with action from national government. The application process is burdensome and can be unmanageable for those with poor literacy or who may not speak English as their first language. Some families may not even know they are eligible due to uncertainty around the entitlement criteria, and some might be put off due to stigma or a feeling of embarrassment. Currently, automatic enrolment is hindered as data on who is entitled, which is held by the Department for Work and Pensions, cannot be shared with the Department for Education, who administer FSMs.

Alex, aged 16 and a Food Ambassador from Birmingham, said:

“I think auto-enrolment would have a positive impact on families whose second language is English. For me, as an immigrant coming into this country, my parents didn't necessarily know that the option of Free School Meals was available because English wasn't in their first language. Auto-enrolment saves hassle and prevents embarrassment.

“Auto-enrolment would definitely decrease the pressure put on families like mine, who are immigrants, to try and make something out of themselves in this country whilst trying to live day by day and afford these basic necessities.”

The poor registration levels for FSMs also means that many schools are missing out on much needed Pupil Premium funding as this payment is dependent on the number of children in each school signed up to free school meals (£1,480 in primary schools and £1050 in secondary schools)

Several local authorities, many of whom have been supported by the FixOurFood FSM auto-enrolment project, have taken the initiative to introduce an approach in which local authorities apply on behalf of families, using routine data that is already available on welfare (and therefore, likely eligibility).  This approach has been built on a method being used by Sheffield council, in the failure of action from national government.  While families are given an opportunity to stop local authorities applying on their behalf, early FixourFood data indicate that very few do.

There are, however, a number of local authorities who have attempted to introduce the scheme but faced barriers including data sharing challenges and struggling to keep up with the huge resource that is required to coordinate and run the scheme when councils are already over-stretched.  In some cases, councils have even been threatened with legal action for violating GDPR.

Of the successful roll out of FSM autoenrollment in Middlesbrough Borough Council, South Tees Joint Director of Public Health Mark Adams, said:

“The process of liaising with schools, getting executive approval and working within the school timetable was possible, but not easy and places further pressure on already stretched school staff. We pooled staff teams from across the council, determined to do the pilot. It has been a success, but this is not a realistic task for every local authority: national government needs to step in and help.”

Cllr Arooj Shah, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board said:

“Councils are doing what they can to support children who are eligible to receive a free school meal, but face data sharing and resource challenges, as this letter highlights.

“Introducing automatic enrolment would capture all those who are entitled to one, but for whatever reason have been unable to claim.

“At a time when families are still under financial pressure, streamlining the process and making it easier for children to have a healthy, nutritious meal would make a real difference, alongside expanding eligibility to all those who are in receipt of Universal Credit and equivalent benefits, so no child in poverty goes hungry.”

Positively, the Mayor of London has provided funding of £20,000 to each of the London boroughs to help them explore and implement auto-enrolment. While this is fantastic for children in London, it is widening the gulf between them and the rest of the country.

Furthermore, in addition to the estimated 470,000 children who are eligible but not registered, there are a further 900,000 children who are living in poverty in England, who do not qualify for the free school meals at all because the income threshold is so restrictive.

FixourFood, Bremner&Co and The Food Foundation are calling on Government to use the upcoming, Children’s Wellbeing Bill to introduce Free School Meal auto-enrolment for all children who are eligible.

Shona Goudie, Policy and Advocacy Manager, The Food Foundation said:

“It’s shocking that so many children from households on extremely low incomes who meet the government’s criteria to receive a free school meal are missing out on a school lunch that could be the only hot meal they have access to in a day. Government should be doing everything they can to make sure these children at risk of food poverty have access to this vital nutritional safety net, as is their right. Due to a range of barriers facing local authorities, from data sharing to lack of resource, we are hearing loud and clear that this needs to come from national government. Auto-enroling children for Free School Meals is an absolutely critical first step towards the government achieving its very welcome ambitions to reduce child poverty and have “the healthiest generation of children ever”.

Myles Bremner, from Bremner & Co, said:

“It’s been incredible to see the effort and commitment from local councils in introducing new ways to auto-enrol children previously missing out for free school meals.  But the whole system needs reform.  It’s not fair for councils to do it; it’s not fair for schools; and most of all it’s not fair for children and families; national government have the data and they have the power.  Time to step up and do the right thing.”

Maria Bryant, Professor of Public Health Nutrition at the University of York and the FixOurFood auto-enrolment lead said:

“Whilst it is heartening to see the impact that our work has had in supporting local authorities to implement auto-enrolment process, data from our evaluation clearly highlights the complexities faced in getting approvals in place and setting the process up.  Our early evidence highlights that about 1000 extra children are now receiving FSM in each area as a result of this process – but it shouldn’t have to rely on already busy local authorities when it's possible to do it centrally.”