Following the Government’s announcement last week that free school meals would be widened to include more children from low-income families, Ian Sollom called for safeguards to protect funding for the most disadvantaged children.
During Education questions in the Commons, the MP for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire welcomed the Government’s adoption of the long-standing Liberal Democrat pledge of providing free school meals to children from families in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. However, he asked the Education Minister, Stephen Morgan, what safeguards he would make to protect the Pupil Premium currently given to schools to help 2.2 million disadvantaged children.
The Pupil Premium is a grant that provides funding to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools in England, and eligibility is mainly based on how many children in the school receive free school meals. However, the Government has been clear that those newly eligible for free school meals will not receive the pupil premium, while other changes are likely to result in less pupil premium funding going to schools.
Ian said: “The Liberal Democrats have been calling for the extension of free school meals for a long time and during the passage of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools’ Bill through the commons we continuously pressed the Government for it, so I am pleased they have finally listened.
“However, I am concerned that the extension of free school meals breaks the link to eligibility for the Pupil Premium which provides vital help and support to the most disadvantaged children.
“The Government has said it will review how Pupil Premium funding is allocated, as well as looking at national deprivation funding in the longer term, and I will be keeping a close eye on this to ensure no children lose out.”
In addition, the Liberal Democrats have called on the Government to introduce auto-enrolment to all those who are eligible for Free School Meals, ensuring that children are automatically considered eligible when their parents apply for relevant benefits or financial support.