Free School Meals: England Sees 1.7 Million Rise In Number Of Children

Official data shows that the number of children in England receiving free school meals soared to more than 1.7 million, including more than 1 million aged between four and 11.

Figures from the annual school census show a rise from 1.44 million children, or 17.3% of all pupils, in January last year to 1.74 million, nearly 21%, in January this year.

More than 100,000 of the increase came between October and January, confirming the concerns of headteachers that schools would miss out on more than £100m in extra funding through the pupil premium because of the government’s decision to shift the cut-off date for eligibility.

The premium of about £1,000 per child is linked to the number of pupils on free school meals. The Department for Education (DfE) switched to using its October figures to determine pupil premium support rather than the January census, missing out 100,000 newly eligible pupils.

A senior economist at the National Foundation for Educational Research, Jenna Julius, said these latest statistics confirm that recent government changes to how pupil premium funding is allocated will leave many schools with less funding to support their low-income pupils from April of this year.

Pupils are eligible for free meals if their parents or carers are receiving universal credit with a household income of less than £7,400 a year, or receiving similar benefits.

General secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Geoff Barton, said the change in pupil premium dates was “nothing short of shameful”.

Barton said child poverty was already a terrible blight on the society prior to coronavirus. The situation is now even worse and tackling this issue simply has to be a top priority for the government.

The shadow minister for children, Tulip Siddiq said: “Thousands more families are reliant on free school meals to stop children going hungry, yet the Conservative government is offering food on just 16 of 30 weekdays this summer holiday.”

The DfE figures show considerable regional variation, with about one in four pupils on free school meals in the north-east and West Midlands, compared with fewer than one in six in the south-east.

The census showed a slight increase in the number of children at schools in England, now totalling 8.9 million, with rising numbers in secondary schools.

Separate figures on school admissions showed the number of applications for primary school places fell by 5% in the space of a year.

The DfE said several local authorities had advised that a larger than usual number of applications were submitted late and so were not included in the figures. Councils said some parents missed the deadline because it fell in January during the lockdown.

The pandemic may have led to more teachers staying on last year. The total number of teachers employed in state schools in England rose by 7,000 compared with 2019, to more than 460,000. The number leaving the profession fell by 17% to 34,000.

The state school workforce including support staff and teaching assistants, increased by 17,000 to 963,000 in total.