Free school meals in Yorkshire and the Humber

This briefing looks at free school meals (FSMs) in Yorkshire and the Humber, including new statistics on the number of children in poverty in each local authority missing out on this entitlement.

• 70,000 school-age children in poverty in Yorkshire and the Humber do not qualify for FSMs.
• Analysis shows that every local authority (LA) across the region has at least 1,000 children in poverty who miss out, and this rises to as many as 14,000 in some LAs.
• Across Yorkshire and the Humber, schools and LAs are helping to register eligible pupils and extend provision to more families. This is making a difference to the numbers of children benefiting from FSMs.
• Children and young people from Halifax Academy in West Yorkshire explain why they want to see more children accessing FSMs.
• CPAG and The Food Foundation encourage LAs and Metro Mayors to do all they can to increase the number of children benefitting from FSMs, but recognise the different and difficult environments they operate in.
• The responsibility to tackle this issue ultimately lies with the UK government. As a first step, the government must introduce a national auto-enrolment scheme to ensure all eligible children get access to their FSMs entitlement. However, the charities call on the UK government to reform the current FSMs threshold and work towards removing means-testing entirely from the dining hall. This should form part of the work of the government’s Child Poverty Taskforce.