We’ve been working on a project to help make sure that children in Devon who are entitled to free school meals (FSM) don’t miss out on receiving them. The scheme will also bring in additional money for schools because, as you know, pupil premium funding is based on the number of children registered for free school meals.
What’s changing?
Barriers such as language, lack of digital access and confusion about eligibility can stop families applying for FSM. So, we’re introducing a system to automatically check if pupils are eligible for FSM without families needing to apply.
We gather benefits data from the government and Devon County Council, then run it through the Free School Meals eligibility checker to find pupils who qualify but haven’t registered yet- so we can sign them up. This will help make sure no child misses out on the support they’re entitled to, and that schools receive the full pupil premium funding available.
We need your help
Once we’ve identified the pupils in Devon who are entitled to FSM, but not yet registered, we’ll let their school, college or educational setting know. This is because we would like you to contact their family to notify them that we’re going to register their child for FSM, and how to opt out if they do not want to be included.
- We’re asking you to do this, rather than contacting them directly, because:
- You already have a trusted relationship with families
- You are most likely to have the most accurate contact details
- It’s the quickest and most reliable way to get in touch, and so minimises the chance of delays and errors
We know your time is limited, so we’ve kept things simple with easy-to-follow guidance and ready-made templates to help avoid any extra workload. We will provide a template letter for you to send to families, which includes information about the process and a link to a short online form to use if they wish to opt-out. This won’t affect any current support they receive; it just means that they won’t be included in the automatic checks.
Once the opt-out period ends, we’ll remove the records of those families who would prefer that we didn’t register their child for FSM and sign the rest up through the usual DfE process.
We’re holding two online information sessions for schools to learn more about the project and ask questions, so that you have the information and templates required to support this process. You can sign up here:
Timescales
We’re working with a consultancy firm called Basis, who has supported other local authorities to implement this system securely and effectively. We aim to identify, and register, entitled children in time for the October census, so schools don’t miss out on vital Pupil Premium funding. However, this depends on when we receive the benefits data from the government, which we’re still waiting for. Thank you, as always, for your continued support. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our free school meals team by emailing freeschoolmeals@devon.gov.uk or Lindsay Cook at Basis by emailing lindsay.cook@basis.co.uk.