Concern Sheffield families are missing out on free school meals

Councillor Barbara Masters asked Coun Dawn Dale, chair of the education, children and families committee, about the matter in the latest full council meeting.

She raised concern that many children nationally who meet the criteria for free school meals were not registered.

“Not only do the children miss out on a free lunch but schools also lose the additional funding this would bring,” she said.

Under the free school meals legislation, a request must be made to receive free school meals.

Coun Dale said the Department for Work and Pensions was responsible for registering families and it was not possible for the council to identify how many children were eligible but not registered.

She said the council has tried to improve registration through an auto award programme – which gained national recognition over the past year. She said this was introduced in 2016 with the aim of increasing eligibility and funding.

“This has had a significant impact in Sheffield,” she said.

To date, an additional 3,285 primary and secondary pupils were awarded free school meals and 2,118 early years children were identified as eligible when they reach school age.

Coun Dale added: “Essentially we use information already held by the council to identify families that are missing out on a free school meal. We write to parents with children aged between two and 19 on matching housing and council tax support benefits with similar eligibility criteria to free school meals to advise them that, to ensure they are claiming everything they are entitled to, we will use their name, date of birth, and national insurance number from their housing benefit and council tax support application to make a request for a free school meal check on their behalf.

“We give them three weeks to object to the use of their information and after three weeks the data is processed and successful applications are added for eligible children.”

To check eligibility and register for free school meals, visit the government’s website.