{"id":13472,"date":"2015-06-26T15:27:28","date_gmt":"2015-06-26T14:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.devon.gov.uk\/schoolssupport\/free-school-meals\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T14:18:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:18:36","slug":"free-school-meals","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/administration-and-finance\/administration\/free-school-meals\/","title":{"rendered":"Free school meals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Free school meals are administered by Devon County Council for all Devon maintained schools. We are also responsible through a traded agreement for free school meals with Devon academies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These pages are designed to keep schools up-to-date with the latest news and information on free school meals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Applying for free school meals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Parents should apply through the <a href=\"https:\/\/oneonline.devon.gov.uk\/CCSCitizenPortal_LIVE\/Account\/Login?ReturnUrl=%2fCCSCitizenPortal_live\" rel=\"noopener\">Citizen Portal<\/a> which is the quickest and easiest way to apply and will result in them getting an instant decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Qualifying benefits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Free school meals are available to pupils (16-19-year-olds) in receipt of, or whose parents are in receipt of, one or more of the following benefits:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Targeted Free School Meals<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Families may qualify for Targeted Free School Meals if they receive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Universal Credit and have an annual household income of\u00a0less than\u00a0\u00a37,400.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The guarantee element of Pension Credit<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Meet the eligibility criteria outlined in the separate guidance below for\u00a0<strong>families with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Families eligible for Targeted Free School Meals will also be able to access additional support, such as&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/education\/school-meals\/new-starter-pupil-premium\">Pupil Premium<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/child-family-support\/family-support\/haf-programme\/\">Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Expanded Free School Meals<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Families will qualify for Targeted Free School Meals if they receive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Universal Credit and have household earnings\u00a0above\u00a0\u00a37,400 per year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Families eligible for Expanded Free School Meals with receive&nbsp;<strong>free school meals only<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">School children living on their own (16-19 year olds) who receive a qualifying benefit in their own right can also get free school meals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Free school meals opt-out auto-award<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We&#8217;ve been working on a project to help make sure that children in Devon who are entitled to free school meals don\u2019t 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.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/administration-and-finance\/administration\/free-school-meals\/free-school-meals-opt-out-auto-award\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"33514\">Find out more about the opt-out auto-award<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Communications to schools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To stay up-to-date on the latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/schcomms\/sc\/interests\/free-school-meals\/\">free school meals communications<\/a> please ensure you are registered to the free school meals topics on our <a href=\"https:\/\/public.govdelivery.com\/accounts\/UKDEVONCC\/subscriber\/topics?qsp=UKDEVONCC_3\" rel=\"noopener\">Schools Communications website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Universal infant free school meals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You will be aware that the government introduced universal infant free school meals for all key stage 1 pupils from September 2014. All pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2 in state-funded schools in England are eligible for Universal Infant Free school meals. This will include academies, free schools, pupil referral units and alternative provisions as well as maintained schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pupil premium<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pupil premium is additional funding from the government for schools. Students eligible \u2013 based on the existing free school meals criteria &#8211; can attract this funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Parents and guardians with children in reception, year 1 and year 2 at a Devon school may be asked to complete a free school meal application form to check entitlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For further information regarding pupil premium please visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and-alternative-provision-settings\" rel=\"noopener\">Pupil premium for schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We appreciate how important it is that pupils within KS1 are still recorded as eligible for free school meals, ensuring pupil premium funding is granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For further information regarding KS1 pupil premium for parents please refer to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/educationandfamilies\/school-information\/school-meals\/new-starter-pupil-premium\">New starter pupil premium page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stay up to date with the latest advice and information<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":41,"parent":6066,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-13472","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-12 21:35:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13472"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37073,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13472\/revisions\/37073"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/support-schools-settings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}