This is a tst
Wandsworth Council
Children’s Services Department
The Town Hall
Wandsworth High Street
London SW18 2PU
To: Headteachers of Primary and Special
Schools
Please ask for/reply to P Gaskin
Telephone: 020 8871 7974
Fax: 020 8871 8258
Minicom: 020 8871 8275
Email [email protected]
Copy to: EMT, Section heads and team
leaders.
Our ref: ufsm/schoolscirc/01
Website contributor L Brunton
Date: 12th March 2014
Dear Colleague,
Please draw to the attention of Headteacher, Business Managers, SAO’s
Circular letter
reference number
and title
Purpose of this
circular letter
20140312CSCNPG - Primary Headteachers’ Business
Managers, SAO’s
Action required
For information and reference
No response required - current information
Response by
Update - Universal Free School Meals for Reception,
Year 1 and Year 2 Pupils as from September 2014
UNIVERSAL FREE SCHOOL MEALS
FOR RECEPTION,YEAR 1 AND YEAR 2 PUPILS
Introduction
As you are probably aware there are important changes planned for school lunch provision
with effect from September 2014 whereby every child in reception, year 1 and year 2, in
state-funded schools, will be offered a free school lunch. This policy does not include
children in nurseries at the moment.
This has followed on from a recommendation in the new School Food Plan, an
independent review published in July 2013. The aim is to significantly increase the number
of children eating good food in schools.
The government has stated that the emphasis of this new plan and policy is to be
implemented in the light of potential future long term funding for universal infant free school
meals The Children and Families Bill, currently before Parliament, will be amended to
place a legal duty on primary schools to offer free meals to all pupils in reception, year 1
and year 2 from September 2014. The legislation will also include a power to extend the
policy to additional year groups in future. Existing entitlements to free school meals for
www.wandsworth.gov.uk
Director of Children’s Services: Paul Robinson
Assistant Director, Planning and Resources: Sarah Harty;
disadvantaged pupils in nursery classes and at key stages 2-4 will continue as at present.
The pilot projects held in 3 boroughs between 2009 and 2011 indicated that universal free
school meals can have significant benefits both for individual children and for the broader
life of the school. Pupils in the pilot areas were found to eat more healthily and perform
better academically. Schools also reported improved behaviour and atmosphere as a
result of all pupils (and an increasing number of teachers) eating together every day.
It is appreciated that schools and headteachers will have some concerns about the
logistical issues of feeding more children, managing longer queues and adapting dining
area/s or kitchens. The pilot projects showed that, with commitment on all sides and good
planning, none of these challenges are insurmountable.
The government has stated that a package of help and advice will be made available for
the schools who need it most. There is a small notional capital allocation of £615,086 for
Wandsworth as a whole, which will be prioritised for the purchase of heavy catering
equipment for kitchens in order to support the introduction of the Governments Universal
Schools Meals Policy. I am sure that you will understand that this funding will not go far as
we would like or indeed need as we have to consider all schools affected by the
introduction of this new Government policy totalling some 60 in number.
The government has also announced the intention to fund each new free school meal
taken up at a rate of £2.30 per meal based on the October 2014 census. It is also likely
that the allocation will be updated to take account of the infant meals recorded on the
January 2015 census. The DfE expect to provide provisional meal funding during the
Summer term. Our current suggested meal price is £2.40 but you will be aware that we are
in the middle of the tender process to start a new contract with effect from 1 September
2014 and our expectation is that the meal price from 1 September under the new contract
will be at or below the £2.30 funding figure.
Each individual school is different. No one knows the individual circumstances of your
school better than you and your staff and your commitment to the initial introduction and
the future success of universal free school meals is therefore crucial. In doing so, you
should bear in mind that the introduction of free school meals for infants is likely to lead to
greater take-up of school meals in other year groups too. You might therefore want to start
considering. The logistical issues involved in delivering the additional meals e.g. in terms of
staff supervision.
The School Food Plan is essential reading (www.schoolfoodplan.com/universal-freeschool-meals): an invaluable source of practical advice, which is largely written for head
teachers. As well as explaining the case for universal free school meals in greater depth, it
lays out 16 further actions that the government and others will be taking to help improve
the food culture in schools. This includes mandatory cooking and food education as part of
the new national curriculum for all children up to the age of 14.
Some concerns have been raised about the impact of this change on the pupil premium.
The government have once again given reassurance that pupil premium funding will not be
affected. Schools will need to ensure that they still process applications for fsm / pupil
premium through the government’s checking system which will assist in identifying children
entitled to pupil premium. The current application form will be updated in due course and
www.wandsworth.gov.uk
Director of Children’s Services: Paul Robinson
Assistant Director, Planning and Resources: Sarah Harty;
schools advised accordingly.
Schools will still receive the pupil premium for children from disadvantaged backgrounds,
with funding allocations for 2014-15 informed by School Census data collected in January
2014. We would encourage you to make sure that your School Census return is accurate
so that you receive your full allocation. The government is also considering how the pupil
premium is allocated in the longer term.
Next steps
Officers have presented this paper to the Schools Forum and have already commenced
work in surveying the current service provision at schools in association with Harrison
(where appropriate).This is to identify where actions are needed to ensure that school
kitchens are able to accommodate the increases in meal numbers that the introduction of
the new statutory responsibility will entail as from September 2014.
Part of the survey will also entail indentifying additional needs in relation to the purchase of
light goods such as plates, cutlery and light kitchen equipment which will still remain the
schools responsibility to purchase from their own budgets.
Schools who do not buy into the central catering service will need to conduct a similar
exercise and have already been sent a sample form to assist with this task. All schools will
also need to start thinking through the logistical issues in relation dining times and staffing
arrangements.
Once all of the surveys have been completed, analysed and costed the data will be shared
with the appropriate schools.
We will of course keep schools informed of progress in this matter together with any further
information received from the Government as an when received.
In the meantime please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any queries or
require any further information.
Yours sincerely
Pete Gaskin
Head of Contracts and HR
www.wandsworth.gov.uk
Director of Children’s Services: Paul Robinson
Assistant Director, Planning and Resources: Sarah Harty;