Recommendation 6

The Department awarded a contract to administer the voucher scheme to a private contractor, Edenred.7 We asked the Department why it had gone down this route, and what alternative options it had considered to support pupils eligible for free school meals who were not attending school. The Department told us that it had looked at four main options. Its initial preferred option was a cash transfer to parents through the benefits system. The Department explained, however, that this approach would not have been quick enough for what it was trying to achieve. It would have taken at least six weeks to put in place the mechanisms for payments through the benefits system, and would have required 1 C&AG’s Report, Investigation into the free school meals voucher scheme, Session 2019–20, HC 1036, 2 December 2020 2 C&AG’s Report, para 1.1 3 Q 128; C&AG’s Report, paras 1.2, 1.3 4 C&AG’s Report, paras 2, 2.1 5 Qq 44–45 6 Supplementary written evidence from the Department for Education 7 C&AG’s Report, para 3 8 COVID 19: the free school meals voucher scheme legislation. This was because the Department does not share with the Department for Work & Pensions data identifying which families in receipt of Universal Credit also have children eligible for free school meals.8