Hampshire County Council
Schools Forum
Item 9
1 May 2014
Universal Free School Meals
Report of the Director of Corporate Resources – Corporate Services and
Director of Children’s Services
Contact: Andrew Minall 01962 846408; andrew.minall@hants.gov.uk;
Kathryn Stevens 01962 845185; Kathryn.stevens@hants.gov.uk
1
Introduction
In September 2013 the Government announced the introduction of
Universal Free School Meals (UFSM) to all infant age pupils attending
any state funded school.
From September 2014 all primary and infant schools have a statutory
duty to offer free school meals to all year R, 1 and 2 pupils.
This paper looks at the requirement set out by the Department for
Education (DfE) and provides details regarding how the funding will be
distributed.
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Background
The introduction of universal free school meals follows a
recommendation in the School Food Plan, an independent review
published in July 2013, which aims to bring about a significant increase
in the numbers of children eating healthy and well balanced food in
schools.
The decision was made following a two year pilot scheme across other
Local Authorities. The pilot scheme showed an improvement in health,
attainment and behaviour of this group of pupils following the
introduction of free school meals to all.
Initial plans were to provide every infant age pupil with a hot meal
however that has since been amended to hot or cold nutritious meal to
accommodate pressures around the delivery of the offer. Schools are
however legally required to provide meals that comply with the School
Food Standards.
The government has allocated revenue funding of £450 million for the
provision in 2014/15, plus £22.5 million transitional funding for small
schools and £150 million capital funding for renovating kitchens and
dining areas.
The DfE will provide revenue funding of £635 million in 2015/16.
Under current rules, pupils are entitled to free school meals if their
parents claim means-tested out-of-work benefits (such as Income
Support) of Child Tax Credit (except Working Tax Credit) with an annual
income of no more than £16,190.
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Pilot
The pilot was conducted between the autumn of 2009 and summer of
2011 involving three local authorities. Two of the local authorities piloted
the ‘universal’ offer to all infant age pupils and the other local authority
extended the entitlement to include families who were on Working Tax
Credit.
The pilot scheme noted that the universal offer improved outcomes
among children from less affluent families; it increased the take up of
school meals among pupils who were already eligible for free school
meals before the pilot was introduced. School staff noted that the
universal offer reduced the ‘levelling effect’ on the quality of lunches
which was currently happening as the quality of packed lunches varied
considerably by socio-economic background.
Pupils in the pilot areas were found to eat more healthily and perform
better academically and these improvements were most pronounced
among the poorest pupils. Schools also reported improved behaviour
and atmosphere, as a result of all pupils (and increasing number of
teachers) eating together every day.
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Revenue Funding
Per Pupil Funding
Schools will be allocated a flat rate of £2.30 per meal taken, based on
actual take up by newly eligible infant pupils, which will be measured the
by a new indicator in the school census of October, January and May.
This new indicator will be introduced from October 2014.
Schools are currently charged £2.00 per school meal by the main
Hampshire provider, HC3S.
An initial allocation will be paid to Local Authorities in June 2014 and will
be based on pupil data from the January 2014 census with the following
assumptions;

87% of newly eligible pupils will take meals

Those pupils will take 190 school meals over the course of the
full academic year.
The provisional allocation will be revised later in the academic year
based on actual take up data derived from an average of October 2014
and January 2015 school censuses and payment for the third term of
the 2014/15 academic year will be adjusted accordingly.
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Schools will receive their initial allocation in September 2014. Later in
2015, schools will receive the balance adjusted to reflect how many
children are actually eating a free school meal.
Schools will be notified of their provisional full year allocation in June
2014. The initial payment will represent 2 terms worth of funding (for
2014/15 academic year).
The DfE has stated that the funding methodology for 2015/16 will be
confirmed in due course and funding beyond 2016 will be considered as
part of the next Spending Review.
Transitional Funding
One-off funding worth a minimum of £3,000 will also be provided in
2014/15 for small schools to help with transitional costs. For the
purposes of universal free school meals, small schools are defined as
those having fewer than 150 total pupils as at the January 2014 census.
The one-off funding (known as transitional funding) will be paid in June
2014 and can be spent however schools choose in support of their
implementation of the policy. This funding will not be adjusted at a later
date in the case of where the actual take up is different.
Transitional funding will be based upon infant pupils who were not
eligible for FSM in the 2014 census based on the units of funding in the
table below. Any schools which amount to less than £3,000 will be
topped up to this minimum level;
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Total NOR in latest census
Unit of funding per non-FSM eligible
pupil
Minimum additional funding per
school
£3,000
1 – 30
£210
31 – 60
£190
61 – 90
£160
91 – 120
£135
121 – 150
£100
Work Undertaken to Date
Childrens Services, HC3S and Property Services have developed a
database showing the current capacity for meals in school kitchens; the
anticipated required school meal number and the dining space capacity
to identify hot spots. To this has been added the cooking solutions
including ovens, hotplates, hobs and ventilation systems to ensure the
emissions regulations are met.
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Discussions with food suppliers have taken place to ensure the logistics
are considered and the HC3S Operations Managers are meeting/have
met with Headteachers to ensure further planning is undertaken to
ensure the service is delivered well from September.
This process has been undertaken for all schools and not just those
schools that subscribe to HC3S.
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Costing
There are currently 321 infant and primary schools in Hampshire and 15
special schools with infant age pupils attending.
Based upon the January 2014 census there were 44,482 infant age
pupils, broken down as follows;
Phase
Infant/ Primary
Year R
Year 2
Total
14,790
14,874
14,514
44,178
93
103
108
304
14,883
14,977
14,622
44,482
Special
Total
Year 1
Based on the January 2014 census there were 5,078 pupils eligible for
FSM under the current criteria, broken down as follows;
Phase
Infant/ primary
Special
Total
Year R
Year 1
Year 2
Total
1,699
1,678
1,621
4,998
17
33
30
80
1,716
1,711
1,651
5,078
There will, therefore, be 39,404 (44,482 – 5,078) newly eligible pupils for
the universal free school meals funding. Based on initial modelling
derived from the above figures and the assumptions detailed in
paragraph 4.3, Hampshire will receive in the region of £15 million (87%
of 39,404 = 34,281 * 2.30 per pupil per meal * 190 days) for per pupil
funding.
For transitional funding, there are currently 102 infant age schools in
Hampshire with fewer than 150 pupils. There are 87 infant and primary
schools and 15 special schools.
Transitional funding is forecast to be £1.2 million based on initial
modelling.
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Capital Funding
Hampshire has been allocated £3.4 million in capital funding. This
includes £3.05 million for maintained schools and just under £0.4 million
for Voluntary Aided schools.
Voluntary Aided schools allocation is separate to reflect the fact that the
Governors raise 10% capital costs. Therefore, only 90% is provided by
the DfE.
Local Authorities will need to decide on their priorities for using the
capital funding and how best to target their share at individual schools in
order to meet the universal infant FSM entitlement.
At his Decision Day on 26 March 2014 the Executive Lead Member for
Children’s Services agreed to set aside total resources of £6.2 million in
the capital programme for this work. The high level feasibility work that
was undertaken suggested that up to this amount is required to ensure
delivery of the tight programme before September 2014. A detailed list
of the costed schemes will be reported to the July Decision Day.
Academies will need to bid for capital funding The DfE have stated that
the results of the most recent Academies Capital Maintenance Fund
(ACMF) bidding round will also be announced shortly.
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Risk Analysis
The introduction of this scheme poses the following risks for schools;
1) Non HC3S subscribers, particularly in rural areas, may face
problems with economies of scale and the meal may cost in
excess of the £2.30 allocation. The pilot scheme found that the
actual cost of school lunches ranged from £1.90 to £2.60 across
the two authorities.
2) Schools may possibly need to hire additional kitchen and dining
area staff bringing additional cost pressures.
3) Not all pupils will take up the offer. The pilot found that only 90%
of pupils actually took up the offer. The main reason for nonparticipation was due to the choice of food available not being to
the pupils liking. This is a potential barrier for schools to
overcome. Other reasons for non-take up of the offer could be
due to food allergies, absences or religion.
4) Small schools may struggle to cope with the increased demand,
not only in kitchen facilities but in the dining room also. To
overcome these issues the government has suggested
introducing staggered mealtimes and allowing pupils to eat in
classrooms. The need to stagger mealtimes may cause
associated timetabling issues.
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5) Schools will continue to have the freedom to set their own
policies regarding packed lunches. Therefore Headteachers
could ban packed lunches completely to promote the universal
free school meals offer. This may be met with some resistance
from parents and carers and the consequences of which will need
to be considered.
6) There is concern that there will be no incentive for parents to
declare FSM eligibility if already entitled to a lunch. Therefore,
this may reduce the level of funding received through pupil
premium. To overcome this issue the Local authorities involved in
the pilot scheme adopted an approach where all parents had to
complete a form, that way they can still record those parents
eligible for free school meals.
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Further Points to note
The DfE has stated that the 2014/15 allocation for Deprivation Ever 6
FSM Pupil Premium will not be affected by the introduction of universal
FSM for infant pupils. The DfE is considering how pupil premium is
allocated to schools in the longer term.
The Children and Families Act 2014 places a legal duty on primary
schools to offer free meals to pupils in year R, 1 and 2. The legislation
also includes a power to extend the policy to additional year groups in
the future.
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Recommendation
It is recommended that Schools Forum notes the information provided in
this report.
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