Govt admits current free school meals data is over a decade out of date

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

The Liberal Democrats have tabled a motion on the Children Wellbeing and Schools’ Bill to auto-enrol eligible children for free school meals - as the Government admits it’s relying on 11-year-old data to assess the number of children missing out.

The Government has made no formal assessment of the number of eligible children missing out on free school meals since 2013, parliamentary questioning by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

Stephen Morgan, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Education, admitted that his Department “has not formally assessed” the number of children who are eligible for free school meals but not receiving it. The last review, he disclosed, was in 2013 - meaning the last generation of children have been missed out from Government counts on free school meals. 

Mr Morgan said that he “encourage[d] all eligible families to take their entitlement up” - but the Lib Dems have expressed their shock over his statement, declaring it ‘unbelievable’ that the Minister believes ‘encouragement’ is all that’s needed to solve the situation for struggling families. 

The Government’s disclosure comes as the Liberal Democrats prepare to bring a new clause to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill on free school meals auto-enrolment, which would require local authorities to automatically enrol children eligible for free school meals on the programme.

The introduction of auto-enrolment in Durham led to 2,500 more eligible children receiving free school meals, which also led to a £3 million boost in Pupil Premium to the local council. 

Munira Wilson MP, the Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson, said:

“No child should go hungry in our country. 

“I’ve heard from parents in my constituency who are giving up prescriptions so that they can afford to feed their children - with hundreds of thousands of families in poverty struggling to scrape together enough to send their children to school with a meal. 

“It’s unbelievable that Mr Morgan thinks that ‘encouragement’ is all that’s needed to fix free school meals uptake in this country. He’s wrong - we need proper reform to the system, so that eligible children automatically get the food they need.

“That’s why we’ve tabled an amendment to auto-enrol eligible kids to receive free school meals - and why we’ll be urging MPs of all stripes to back my amendment.”

ENDS

Please find parliamentary questioning here.

Durham Council data here.