Written Question

Free School Meals: Pre-school Education

Monday 18th December 2023

Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the additional expenditure that would be incurred if free school meals were to be provided to all registered pupils at maintained nursery schools in England as well as to children in receipt of relevant funded early years education.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Over 2 million pupils are currently eligible for benefits-related free school meals (FSM). This includes pupils attending a local authority maintained, academy or free school nursery, as long as they are either in full-time education or receive education both before and after lunch and meet the benefits-related FSM eligibility criteria.

Additionally, close to 1.3 million infants receive free and nutritious meals under the universal infant FSM policy (UIFSM).

The department does not currently have plans to change the existing eligibility conditions for FSM or UIFSM. As such, the department has not made an estimate of the associated costs of providing FSM to all registered pupils at maintained nursery schools in England as well as to children in receipt of relevant funded early years education. The department continues to keep eligibility of FSM under review.

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Select Committee

Private Individual

OWS0152 - Ofsted’s work with schools

Written Evidence Dec. 12 2023

Inquiry: Ofsted’s work with schools
Inquiry Status: Closed
Committee: Education Committee (Department: Department for Education)

Found: “B… leads inspections of primary and nursery schools in both the maintained and independent

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Departmental Publication (Statistics)
Department for Education

Dec. 08 2023

Source Page: How childcare provider characteristics impact costs of childcare
Document: Impact of childcare provider characteristics on the cost of childcare for providers and parents (PDF)

Found: Nursery class childcare settings and maintained nursery schools had the highest median unit costs (

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Departmental Publication (Statistics)
Department for Education

Dec. 08 2023

Source Page: Evidence of early years providers’ finances from a 2022 survey
Document: Providers’ finances: evidence from the survey of childcare and early years providers 2022 (PDF)

Found: Nursery class childcare settings and maintained nursery schools had the highest median unit costs

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Departmental Publication (Statistics)
Department for Education

Nov. 30 2023

Source Page: Children of the 2020s: first survey of families at age 9 months
Document: Cot20s first survey of families at age 9 months: research report (PDF)

Found: • One in eight families (13%) had regularly used formal ECEC, most often day nurseries (6%), nursery

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Departmental Publication (Statistics)
Department for Education

Nov. 30 2023

Source Page: Children of the 2020s: first survey of families at age 9 months
Document: Cot20s first survey of families at age 9 months: research brief (PDF)

Found: • One in eight families (13%) had regularly used formal ECEC, most often day nurseries (6%), nursery

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Departmental Publication (Guidance and Regulation)
Department for Education

Nov. 30 2023

Source Page: Childcare expansion capital grant funding
Document: Childcare Expansion Capital grant: allocations guidance (PDF)

Found: staff, and governing bodies in childcare providers, including PVIs and their trustees , maintained nursery

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Lords Chamber
Early Years Education - Thu 30 Nov 2023
Department for Education

Mentions:
1: Baroness Goudie (Lab - Life peer) child’s life that is arguably the most important.Another important issue with going to childcare or nursery - Speech Link

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Non-Departmental Publication (Guidance and Regulation)
Education and Skills Funding Agency

Nov. 29 2023

Source Page: Early years funding: 2024 to 2025
Document: (Excel)

Found: School funding [h]76478744.869This is the illustrative supplementary revenue funding for Maintained Nursery

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