Free School Meals

The government has a central mission to break down barriers to opportunity for every child. The government has inherited a trend of rising child poverty, which has increased by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low income family. That is why the government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, tackling the root causes and giving every child the best start at life. To support this, a ministerial taskforce has been set up to begin work on the Child Poverty Strategy.

Under current programmes, disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools, as well as 16 to 18 year-old students in further education, are entitled to receive free meals on the basis of low income. 2.1 million disadvantaged pupils are registered to receive free school meals (FSM) and a further 90,000 are registered to receive further education free meals. In addition, all children in reception, year 1 and year 2 in England's state-funded schools are entitled to universal infant free school meals, which benefits around 1.3 million pupils.

Additionally, the government is committed to introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school, to set children up for the day and ensure they are ready to learn, while supporting parents and carers to work.

As with all government programmes, the department will keep the approach to FSM under review.