Constituents have contacted me about the campaign to provide free school meals to all children in educational settings.

I believe it is imperative that children have regular healthy and balanced meals throughout the day to ensure they are able to thrive in the classroom. The Government is also keenly aware of the impact that the cost of living crisis is having on families across the country.

Over two million pupils are currently eligible for benefits based free school meals. Close to 1.3 million additional infants receive free and nutritious meals under the Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) policy.

The Department spends over £1 billion each year on free school meals, including through the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme and school breakfast clubs. This includes around £600 million on UIFSM.

Furthermore, the Government funds over £200 million a year on HAF, which provides healthy meals and holiday club places to children from low-income families. In the summer of 2022, the HAF programme reached around 600,000 children across England, including over 475,000 children eligible for free school meals.

The Government is allocating £30 million over two years for the National School Breakfast Programme (NSBP) until the end of the summer term in 2024, which benefits over 2,000 schools across the country. Family Action estimates that 270,000 children are currently receiving breakfast from the NSBP on an average school day.

In 2023/24, the Free School Meal factor of the National Funding Formula designates £480 per eligible pupil. This is increasing to £490 in 2024/25. Schools are allocated un-ringfenced funding through their core budgets to provide these free meals for disadvantaged pupils. This system recognises that schools are best placed to make decisions about how they use their funding and gives them considerable freedom in how they best deliver educational provision to their pupils.

Additional funding for schools announced since Spending Review 2021 totalled more than £2.4 billion in 2023-24 and will be more than £2.8 billion in 2024-25. This will bring per pupil funding for 5-16 year olds to its highest ever level in real terms in 2024-25 – and represents a cash increase in average funding per pupil from £5,920 in 2019-20 to £7,690 in 2024-25.

Fiona Bruce MP - 12th March 2024