Consultation response on the Department of Education's Free School Meals and Uniform Grant Eligibility Criteria

Free school meal (FSM) eligibility should be designed to target children living in poverty. Given that FSM eligibility is often used as a passport to other entitlements, such as uniform grants, this provides an even greater incentive to ensuring children in poverty are correctly targeted in the eligibility criteria. As NICCY's evidence highlights, the current FSM criteria only covers 59% of children living in poverty, with 66% of those who are eligible not living in poverty. This clearly demonstrates that the current eligibility criteria is not fit for purpose.

We outline our recommendations in our consultation response.