The government is redesigning its system for checking free school meals eligibility to allow parents and schools to use it independently of local councils.
Early education minister Stephen Morgan made the announcement at a committee hearing on Tuesday where the government’s children’s wellbeing and schools bill was debated.
Backbench MPs had tried to amend the bill to introduce automatic enrolment across the country, amid fears the opt-in system currently used is excluding around 250,000 eligible children.
At present, the government’s “apply for free school meals” service simply points users to their local council’s website. Councils then have access to a digital portal to check their eligibility based on the benefits their families claim.
But Morgan said “that checking system is being redesigned to allow parents and schools to check eligibility independently of their local authorities.
“The system will make it quicker and easier to check eligibility for free school meals, and has the potential to further boost take-up by families who meet the eligibility criteria.”
Some councils have already introduced auto-enrolment, whereby eligible children are offered meals unless their families specifically opt out.
Schools Week revealed in 2023 that in Lewisham, south-east London, this led to increased pupil premium funding of £1.2 million. Implementing the system had cost just £800.
Morgan told the committee he was “aware of a range of measures being implemented by local authorities to boost the take-up of free lunches, as we heard earlier.
“Locally-led efforts are more likely to meet the particular needs of the community, and we welcome local authorities taking action to ensure that families access the support for which they are eligible, subject to those activities meeting legal requirements, including those on data protection.”
But he said the Department for Education was “working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to explore legal gateways that could enable better data sharing”.
And the government was “considering further work to improve auto-enrolment”.
He added: “Improved enrolment for meals is needed in the context of the spending review and through the work of the child poverty taskforce.”
The DfE was approached for more information on what this would entail, but did not respond.
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