Written question asked by Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench) on Friday, 1 March 2024, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Friday, 15 March 2024. It was answered by Baroness Barran (Conservative) on Friday, 15 March 2024 on behalf of the Department for Education.
Free School Meals: Eligibility
- Question
-
To ask His Majesty's Government what guidance they have provided, if any, to local authorities about using data proactively to identify and register all eligible children for free school meal entitlement.
- Answer
-
Maximising the take-up of free school meals is important in ensuring that as many eligible children as possible benefit from a healthy and nutritious meal. The department aims to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.
To support this, an ‘Eligibility Checking System’ has been provided to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities.
The department has looked at this issue and considers there to be merit in local authorities exploring initiatives to maximise take up and to better understand the barriers that prevent such take up, whilst ensuring adherence to legal and data protection constraints. The department has not provided formal guidance to support these activities but continues to engage with key stakeholder on this issue.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- HL2939
- Session
- 2023-24
- Grouped for answer
- Yes
- Subjects
- Eligibility Free school meals
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2024-03-15 13:13:02 +0000
- URI
- http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/lords/2023-24/HL2939
- In Indexing
- http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/lords/2023-24/HL2939
- In Solr
- https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/lords/2023-24/HL2939