Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the accessibility of the free school meal vouchers system for families who (a) do not have access to internet-enabled technology and (b) do not feel able to use that technology.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The government has taken unprecedented and substantial action to ensure that no child should go hungry as we take measures to tackle COVID-19, including in relation to free school meals.
In the first instance, we asked schools to support eligible pupils by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. We also established a national voucher scheme to support schools and families where required.
Schools were best placed to decide how to support families eligible for free school meals in their areas, and this includes considerations over access to the internet. Where parents were not able to access the national voucher scheme, we recommended that the school print and post the voucher to families. If there were issues with postal deliveries, we advised schools to consider a safe collection point for families to collect their vouchers.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the response by Baroness Berridge on 17 June (HL Deb, col 2180), when they intend to respond to the proposal to ask supermarkets involved in the free school meals scheme (1) to contribute to the cost of the scheme, and (2) to provide additional benefits to those using the vouchers; and what discussions they have had with supermarket chains about ways to support the poorest families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Throughout the duration of the free school meal voucher scheme, we have been working closely with supermarkets. We recently wrote to and met with participating supermarkets to ensure their ongoing support and welcome their efforts to support families across the country. The voucher scheme and the COVID Summer Food Fund will shortly be coming to an end as children return to school in September and school kitchens re-open, providing free meals for those that are eligible.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the amount of profit made by Edenred through its delivery of the free school meals voucher scheme since the start of that scheme.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department made an award of a contract to Edenred pursuant to Regulation 32(2)(c) Public Contracts Regulations 2015 to provide extremely urgent deliverables as part of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The contract was let as a direct award using the terms of an existing Crown Commercial Service framework. The department do not comment on the commercial arrangements of third parties but can confirm that we are only paying for the face value of goods delivered, which in this case is vouchers.
Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) funding and (b) other support the Government has allocated to (i) the early years sector, (ii) primary schools, (iii) secondary schools; and (iv) further education institutions during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 17 March 2020, the Chancellor confirmed that the Government will continue to pay local authorities as normal for free early years entitlement places for 2, 3 and 4 year olds to support providers. On 18 March 2020, the Government also announced a business rates holiday for many nurseries in England for the 2020 to 2021 tax year.
Many early years providers also receive private income. The Government has therefore clarified the circumstances in which early years providers can seek support through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). It has also provided information to early years providers on the Small Business Grant Fund and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan. Childminders are less likely to be employers, and therefore are less likely to be eligible for support via the CJRS. We have therefore directed childminders towards guidance for the Self Employment Income Support Scheme.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-self-employment-income-support-scheme.
Local Authority maintained schools (including pupil referral units) and academies (including free schools) continue to receive their budgets as usual, regardless of any periods of partial or complete closure. This will ensure that they are able to continue to pay their staff, and meet their other regular financial commitments.
We have put in place additional support to help schools meet exceptional costs they may incur as a result of COVID-19. These costs may arise as result of keeping premises open during the holidays, providing support for free school meals for eligible children who are not attending school (where those costs are not covered by the national voucher scheme described below), and additional cleaning.
We have provided a centrally-funded national voucher scheme to make sure eligible pupils can continue to access free school meals, given they are not able to attend school, including through the Easter school holidays. We have also announced a COVID-19 Summer Food Fund which will enable children who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals to be supported over the summer holiday period.
We have made a commitment to boost remote education, including by providing devices and internet access for disadvantaged year 10 pupils, and those who receive support from a social worker and care leavers. We are ensuring every school that wants it has access to free, expert technical support to access Google and Microsoft’s education platforms, along with training on how to use the resources most effectively and peer support. We have also supported the Oak National Academy, which is a totally new initiative, assembling video lessons and resources for any teacher in the country to make use of if they wish to do so.
We have launched a £1 billion COVID-19 “catch-up” package to directly tackle the impact of lost teaching time, comprising £650 million to be shared across state primary and secondary schools over the 2020/21 academic year. Whilst headteachers will decide how the money is spent, the Government has supported the publication of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) guidance, which sets out a range of evidence-based approaches, including small group tuition.
A National Tutoring Programme, worth up to £350 million, which will increase access to high-quality tuition for the most disadvantaged young people, with delivery starting later in the autumn term.
Further Education and Apprenticeship providers include further education colleges, sixth form colleges, designated institutions, independent training providers, adult and community learning providers, and higher education institutions to the extent that they provide further education or apprenticeships. They are funded in 3 main ways: by grant; under a direct contract for services with the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA); or through a funding agreement with the ESFA (where provision is delivered under a contract directly with an employer, or through advanced learner loan funded learning).
The ESFA will continue to pay grant funded providers their scheduled monthly profiled payments for the remainder of the 2019 to 2020 funding year. We have also published guidance on how providers can access the wider Government support packages, including the CJRS. Some providers may also be eligible for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme or Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and we have directed them to guidance on eligibility. Where a provider receives Adult Education Budget (AEB), or apprenticeship funding, as part of a direct contract for services with the ESFA, and is at risk financially, they may be eligible for support (subject to meeting additional criteria) as part of the ESFA’s post-16 provider relief scheme.
On 8 July, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor, announced a £1.6 billion package of investment in further education and skills. This investment will scale up employment support schemes, training and apprenticeships to help people looking for a job and, in doing so, will stimulate the further education market.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 3 Jul 2020 to Question 60772 on Free School Meals: Voucher Schemes, whether a child that becomes eligible for free school meal vouchers during the summer period can be granted a voucher for the remaining weeks.
Answered by Vicky Ford
New applicants are eligible up to the end of a school’s summer term. If a school receives a claim for an eligible child after the final ordering date of at least one week before their school term ends but before the start of the school’s summer holidays, it will be possible for the school to place an exceptional order for that child via the Edenred system.
If families are facing hardship, they can access the Local Authority Emergency Assistance Grant. Further government support is available for families struggling as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. If families need urgent help, they can contact their local council to find out what services are available in their area:
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-local-help.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 29 June 2020 to Question 60716, how families of children who become eligible for free school meals during the summer holidays will be able to claim the national school food voucher or alternative from their school during that period.
Answered by Vicky Ford
School offices will be closed during the summer holiday period. If families are facing hardship, they can access the Local Authority Emergency Assistance Grant.
Further government support is available for families struggling as a result of COVID-19. More information is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support.
If families need urgent help, they can contact their local council to find out what services are available in their area.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to expand the number of retailers included in the Covid Summer Food Fund voucher scheme.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Provision for free school meals is ordinarily term-time only. However, owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, the government understands that children and parents face an entirely unprecedented situation over the summer. To reflect this, we will be providing additional funding for a COVID Summer Food Fund that will enable families with children who are eligible for free school meals to receive food vouchers covering the six-week holiday period. This is a specific measure to reflect the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak. Our guidance on the COVID Summer Food Fund is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-summer-food-fund.
The vouchers can be spent in a variety of supermarkets that have e-gift card arrangements in place with our supplier, Edenred, including Aldi, Asda, Company Shop Group, Iceland (including The Food Warehouse Stores), Marks & Spencer, McColl’s, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. We have been working with other supermarkets to encourage them to join. Any additional supermarkets would need to have the right infrastructure to deliver e-gift cards across their network of stores.
Where eligible families would be unable to access any of the supermarkets available through using Edenred e-gift cards, schools can make alternative voucher arrangements with a local supermarket that is not listed above. Schools can claim for this through the exceptional costs fund in the autumn, provided that schools have ordered their vouchers one week before their school term ends.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of recent media reports of continuing technical problems affecting the free school meals national voucher scheme; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The government will continue to provide schools with their expected funding, including funding to cover benefits-related free school meals and universal infant free school meals, throughout 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. We know that many schools are successfully delivering food parcels or arranging food collections for eligible children, and we encourage this approach. As schools open more widely, they should speak to their school catering team or provider about the best arrangements for school meals. Schools should ensure that catering teams and food suppliers are supported to return to school to provide meals both for those children attending school and for those remaining at home who are eligible for free school meals. If a school catering service cannot provide meals or food parcels for children who are at home, the school can continue to offer vouchers to families of eligible pupils if needed.
There were initial technical problems with the Edenred system, and government officials have been working tirelessly with Edenred to ensure these issues were resolved at pace. Substantial improvements have been made including a significant reduction in the waiting times for schools ordering and parents redeeming their codes.
Thousands of orders are being processed every week. Voucher codes are being distributed and families are redeeming them. Edenred has reported that over £205 million worth of voucher codes has been redeemed into supermarket eGift cards by schools and families as of 1 July and that over 18,000 schools had placed orders as of 23 June. We have been working closely with Edenred to further improve the scheme, and we thank schools using the system for their patience while it has been upgraded to meet the ongoing demand.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with Edenred on providing technical support to families trying to access and use vouchers for the Covid Summer Food Fund throughout the summer holidays.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Provision for free school meals is ordinarily term time only. However, owing to the COVID-19 outbreak the government understands that children and parents face an entirely unprecedented situation over the summer. To reflect this, we will be providing additional funding for a COVID Summer Food Fund which will enable families with children who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals to receive food vouchers covering the six-week holiday period. Our guidance on the COVID Summer Food Fund is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-summer-food-fund.
Through the COVID Summer Food Fund, schools can support eligible pupils with a £90 voucher to cover the six-week holiday period. Schools must order the vouchers at least one week before their school term ends, and they will be issued to families within 7 days. This is in recognition that school offices will be closed in the summer holidays. If a school receives a claim for an eligible child during the final week before the school’s summer holidays, it will be possible for the school to place an exceptional order for that child via our supplier Edenred.
Customer service support will continue to be available throughout the summer holidays.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that parents that are eligible for free school meal vouchers over summer 2020 will be able to obtain those vouchers.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, the government understands that children and parents face an entirely unprecedented situation over the summer. To reflect this, we will be providing additional funding for a Covid Summer Food Fund that will enable families with children who are eligible for free school meals to receive vouchers covering the 6-week holiday period. This is a specific measure to reflect the unique circumstances of the outbreak.
Guidance has been published for schools on the Covid Summer Food Fund, including details of how to ensure all pupils eligible for and claiming benefits-related free school meals receive a voucher before schools break up for the summer holidays. It sets out how schools should arrange for them to be sent to parents or carers.
The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-summer-food-fund.