Auto Enrolment for Free School Meals Update

The Interim Deputy Director, Head of Inclusion and Learning at Devon County Council, Jack Newton has just written to schools about Free School Meals Auto Enrolment.

Currently, many children eligible for FSM in Devon are not registered, meaning they miss out on both free meals and additional support given to their school through Pupil Premium funding. To address this, they are implementing an auto-enrolment process, where early years, primary and secondary school students will automatically be registered to receive free school meals unless families choose not to participate.

If this process is successful, families will no longer have to register to receive this benefit and the initiative is part of their commitment to ensuring every child receives the meals they are entitled to, so no pupil goes hungry at school.

Auto-enrolment will also help maximise Pupil Premium funding for schools, providing additional resources to support vulnerable children.

He notes that no immediate action is required from schools at this stage. They will share further details in the coming weeks and appreciate schools’ support in ensuring eligible pupils benefit from this initiative.

DAG played a key role in bringing this initiative forward and worked closely with DCC colleagues to encourage its adoption. Alex Walmsley, DAG committee member and vice chair of Devon Education Forum said “this is a great example of DAG representation making a difference for the benefit of all our schools and young people. We are grateful to our colleagues at DCC and school leaders for supporting the introduction of auto enrolment, which should provide substantial additional funding for our schools in the coming years.”

If you would like to know more about Free School Meal Auto Enrolment, please have a look at the DAG Briefing Paper on this subject.