School Meals

(asked on 11th March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to (a) increase the take-up of school meals and (b) improve compliance with school food standards.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 19th March 2020

The government encourages all schools to promote healthy eating and provide healthy, tasty and nutritious food and drink. Compliance with the School Food Standards is mandatory for all maintained schools. We also expect all academies and free schools to comply with the standards, and since 2014 we have made this an explicit requirement in their funding agreements.

School governors have a responsibility to ensure compliance and should appropriately challenge the headteacher and the senior leadership team to ensure that the school is meeting its obligations. Should parents feel that school food standards are not being met at their child’s school, they may choose to make a complaint using the school’s own complaints procedure.

In particular, we want to ensure that as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming their free school meals (FSM) and we also want to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility. To support this, we provide an Eligibility Checking System to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities. We have also developed a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for FSM. Additionally, we provide guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including FSM.

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