Free School Meals North Lanarkshire Council September 2019

Free School Meals North Lanarkshire Council September 2019 Karen Mc. Farlane Frances Hunter Anne Dhir

“How do we ensure that the children who need free school meals actually get them? ”

Local authorities have identified that thousands of children are entitled to free school meals, but aren’t registered. 3

Not just free school meals ● ● ● clothing grant free breakfast club weekend and holiday club Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) head teacher salaries reduced cost of school trips 4

2 schools 100+ children. 7 workshops 20 council staff 23 school staff 12 stakeholders 8 parent and carer interviews. 100 s of calls, emails and tweets 1 “Dear people in power” booklet 31 memes Lost count on the number of meetings! 5

Children voices

School hunger is still a huge issue 8

1. People think stigma is the main issue around FSM 2. The policy doesn’t reach all those who need it 3. The quality of the food and service reduce uptake 4. Some policies work against the uptake 8

Customer consent Education systems Benefits systems Find the pupils who are entitled 5

By October 2019, North Lanarkshire Council will have registered an additional 2, 472 pupils for Clothing Grant and Free School Meals. The same proportion applied to Scotland The system reduces the manual process by 10 to 30 would mean min per child = saves 35, 314 pupils are days a year missing out. 18

Version 2: Pupils who live and study in different local authorities P 1 children under 6 years old Young people over 16 and in education Data quality issues 5

In the future? What other benefits could we apply this logic to? Open Government licence so that other councils can apply the same approach. 5

THANK YOU Karen Mc. Farlane Frances Hunter Anne Dhir