Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 13
13
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Paragraph: 71
Adjust Free School Meal eligibility criteria to ensure all children in poverty are in receipt.
Conclusion
Given a major driver of low attendance is low income, it follows that measures to tackle child poverty should be considered in the Department’s approach to improving attendance. The Department should make an assessment of the eligibility criteria for Free School Meals and adjust if necessary, ensuring all children in poverty are in receipt.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government deflects the recommendation by welcoming the Committee’s recognition of timely attendance data and the progress of the daily data pilot, rather than addressing the call to assess Free School Meal eligibility and child poverty.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
71
Government Response
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HM Government · verbatim extract
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40. The Government spends over £1bn each year on free school meals. The latest published statistics show that around 2 million pupils are claiming free school meals. This equates to 23.8% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. Together with almost 1.3 million further infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal (UIFSM) policy, over one third of pupils receive a free meal in school. Free meal support is also available to 90,000 disadvantaged students in further education.
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