Further Education: Free School Meals

(asked on 10th September 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the further education free schools' meal allowance.


Answered by
 Portrait
Nick Boles
This question was answered on 13th October 2014

From September 2014, further education (FE) funded institutions are required to provide free meals to their disadvantaged 16- to 18-year-old students.

Funding for FE free meals in 2014-15 has been set at £2.41 per meal. This is based on evidence of the average cost of providing school meals in secondary schools, using the latest available data from the 2012 School Food Trust Annual Survey.

However, we recognise that institutions will face a range of different circumstances and so have given them the flexibility to enhance free meals funding from the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund. We have also made clear that where they do this they must ensure that they continue to provide sufficient support from that scheme to support students facing the full range of barriers to participation.

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