A pilot scheme run by the Fix Our Food research programme has led to thousands more children from England’s poorest households eating a free school meal. The programme, involving dozens of councils, automatically enrols previously unregistered eligible children in the scheme. Eligibility for free school meals is usually based on household income, with qualifying families having to register their children; however, some eligible families do not sign up for the scheme for various reasons, such as language barriers or a stigma around sharing financial information.
The total number of children registered for free school meals in England is about 2.1 million, or 24.6% of the total pupil population, though one estimate suggests there could be an additional 470,000 families who qualify but are not registered. The Fix Our Food programme has helped about 20 local authorities implement the automatic enrolment scheme, leading to about 20,000 newly registered children and millions of pounds of extra funding for schools via pupil premium grants. However, the scheme involves a lot of paperwork for the councils who implement it to establish which families are eligible.
Researchers from Fix Our Food want the government to automatically enrol families who are missing out across the country, by allowing them to opt out instead of having to opt in. The government has encouraged all eligible families who are not automatically enrolled to register. An additional 40 councils are working with Fix Our Food to assess whether they could also implement the scheme. MPs could soon be debating the issue in parliament, after it was introduced via a private members’ bill on 16 October. However, the government has not committed to rolling out the scheme nationwide, instead prioritising the provision of free breakfast clubs in primary schools and the introduction of more comprehensive, long-term solutions to child poverty
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