Regarding the London Mayor's extension of free school meals to all primary pupils issues have arisen that have been discussed in Schools Forum. As initially it is only for a year and the Mayoral elections take place in May schools are faced with short-term decisions on recruitng extra staff to cook and serve meals and possible expansion of the kitchens to cope with cooking extra meals. This would impact on school budgets that are already under strain of the grant does not cover all costs. There are also issues around employment rights for extra staff employed.
Schools have been told they could supply cold lunches or vouchers instead of a hot meal that rather undermines the healthy eating aspect of the scheme as well as the benefit of a hot meal in the winter months when children's homes may be under-heated or not heated at all due to unaffordable energy bills.
Some are quite cynical about a policy in which schoools are required to badge the additionale meals scheme to the London Mayor to parents in a pre-election period (see 4.3 below)
The long-term sustainability if the scheme into the next Mayoral term is in question and a topic that should be discussed at the above meeting.
This is an extract from the officers' report to Schools Forum:
Background
3.1 In February 2023, the Mayor informed all London authorities that he will provide
funding at £440 per child for all children in Key Stage 2 to receive Free School
Meals for the academic year 2023/24. The Mayor’s ambition was that the
funding offers all primary aged children access to a hot meal at least once a
day.
3.2 In correspondence received from the Mayor’s office on 28 April 2023, a total
budget of £130 million to provide FSMs to children in KS2 who are not currently
eligible was confirmed. In line with government policy and guidance, this
funding is only for state-funded primary schools and with all other funding of
free school meals schemes, it will not extend to children in independent schools.
3.3 Brent’s indicative grant allocation is £5,212,059.00 which is based on an
assumed 90% uptake for the number of children who are not eligible for the
current Government’s FSM grant. The indicative figure is based on October
2022 census and will be finalised once May 2023 school census figures are
published in July. Payment will be at a rate of £2.65 per meal. This is above
the Government rate of £2.41 because it includes funding for costs associated
with delivering FSMs, such as administration and staffing costs in schools.
3.4 Payment will be made termly in advance to allow for upfront costs to be covered
- 50% of the funding will be paid in July 2023, with a further 20% in December
and a further 20% in March 2024. A balance of 10% will be held back for the
final payment and will be adjusted based on the census day returns in October
2023 and January 2024. A balancing payment or claw back determined by the
difference will be made before the end of the summer term 2024. Also, if take
up exceeds 90%, the final grant allocation will be a top-up allocation instead of
a clawback.
3.5 Payment will be made directly to Local Authorities for their maintained schools
and non-maintained schools, with payment to academies and multi-academy
trusts made via each Local Authority for MATs in their area. The expectation is
that local authorities pass on the exact amount to each MAT based on set
allocations.
4. Grant Conditions
4.1 As part the scheme, Local Authorities must participate in evaluation and data
submission exercises and ongoing reviews of the programme as required by
the Mayor’s office. Communication to London Chief Executives (5 June 2023)
sets out details on the grant and the monitoring process. All participating Local
Authorities will be required to register on the GLA OPS system and sign a
contract.
4.2 As the KS2 UFSM programme progresses, GLA will request regular and
comprehensive information from Local Authorities to understand the value of
the programme.
4.3 Schools and local authorities are expected to promote the Mayor’s investment
in school meals through branding and communication which will be provided by
the GLA. Participating boroughs will be required to support the distribution of
communication from the Mayor of London to all affected families, parents or
carers on a termly basis. The letter addressed to the Chief Executive (5 June)
is the first of these communications and is required to be sent out this term.
4.4 The funding should be used for schemes that:
continue to maximise registration by eligible families for pupil premium,
which may otherwise be impacted by the move to a universal approach
through the Mayor’s Emergency Free School Meals funding
pay London Living Wage (LLW) to catering staff and include LLW in
any future tenders
meet school food standards and ensure school food is culturally
appropriate. Brent recognises, however, that the available funding may
not meet the full cost of providing culturally appropriate food, such as
Kosher meals.
take a whole school approach to healthy eating, participation in Healthy
Schools London and adoption of water only policies.
meet sustainable catering guidelines and support environmental aims.
5. Grant Implementation
5.1 The Mayor’s office established a Partnership Advisory Group consisting of
senior London borough officers to provide guidance and expert input into the
development and implementation of the programme. The Partnership Advisory
Group were supported by four task and finish groups that focus on the approach
to delivery, including grant management, monitoring and evaluation,
sustainability, and policy implementation.
5.2 Initial discussions with Brent school leaders raised several practical concerns
about providing hot meals to all Key Stage 2 children, with views gathered via
a meeting with headteachers and a survey issued to headteachers of all primary
schools (community schools, voluntary aided and academies). While some
schools responded that it would be relatively easy for them to provide additional
school meals, others raised concerns about the implications for staffing and
kitchen infrastructure, the impact on Pupil Premium Grant applications in Key
Stage 2 and impact on the school timetable, as previously reported to PCG.
These were discussed at the Partnership Advisory Groups’ most recent briefing
on 24 April 2023.
5.3 A key shift in the GLA strategy in response to implementation concerns is that
schools can choose to provide a cold lunch service where it is not feasible to
provide a hot meal. Furthermore, where LA and/or school leaders identify that
the only way that they can implement the programme is by providing school
meal vouchers, they will be able to seek the agreement of the Mayor’s office.
This will be agreed on a case-by-case basis where there are exceptional
circumstances.
5.4 The Mayor’s office is rolling out a series of workshops to support school leaders
and address practical concerns by sharing good practice models. At the first
two sessions, officers from London Boroughs that already provide KS2 UFSM
shared case studies of best practice. These workshops have been well
attended by school leaders across London and headteachers can also now
access resources from the GLA website to help their planning.
5.5 The Brent FSM Project Group chaired by the Director of Education,
Partnerships and Strategy, is meeting regularly to plan and implement Brent’s
approach in line with GLA guidance as it is issued. Key completed activity
includes the development of timeline to ensure the dissemination of funds and
a communication strategy. Brent schools were notified of the details of the
programme in May. Schools will be provided with indicative allocations this
month, which will be confirmed when the Mayor of London’s office confirm
details of the autumn grant funding in July (based on June census) and once
confirmed, the local authority will allocate the funds accordingly.
5.6 The local authority will work with schools on a campaign to encourage Key
Stage 2 parents during 2023/24 to formally sign-up to FSMs to ensure that they
can access pupil premium funding. The first wave of communication on this will
be rolled out in June 2023. The local authority has also placed an advertisement
in the local resident’s magazine Your Brent and will continue to provide further
information about the programme for local residents on a termly basis
