Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to reimburse schools that have bought school meal vouchers for pupils in cases where parents have been unable to access the Edenred voucher system.

As both my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have made clear, the government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID-19.

We are committed to ensuring that no child should go hungry as a result of the measures introduced by government during this period. This is why we have introduced a number of immediate measures to ensure children who usually receive free school meals still have access to this provision while they are not attending school.

During this period, we are asking schools to support children who are eligible for and claiming benefits-related free school meals, by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. However, we recognise that food parcel arrangements may not always be possible, and so at the end of March we launched a national voucher scheme to provide schools with additional flexibility to decide what is best for families in their schools. This was an unprecedented intervention to support eligible children during this period.

Voucher codes are being processed through the national scheme and many thousands of families are redeeming them. Edenred has reported that over 17,000 schools have placed orders for the scheme and as of Wednesday 20 May, Edenred reported that more than £96 million worth of voucher codes have been redeemed into supermarket e-gift cards by schools and families. We have been working closely with Edenred to improve the scheme, and we thank schools using the system for their patience while it has been upgraded to meet increased demand.

We understand that alternative approaches, such as providing food parcels or purchasing vouchers for shops not in the national scheme, may mean that schools incur additional costs. We have published guidance on the financial support available for schools who incur these additional costs in this way here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools.

Schools will be able to claim up to a certain limit, depending on their number of pupils, and where they are unable to meet these additional costs from their existing resources, or which they could only meet by drawing down on reserves and undermining their long-term financial sustainability. In exceptional instances where individual schools face additional costs that are higher than the grant’s limits, schools will be able to apply to increase their limit.

Our latest guidance for schools on free school meals provision during this period is set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools.

These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.