Has everyone got their School meal vouchers

[locomoco19]

My school said I should receive an email by the 20th from the government, I then would select the supermarket and they would give the voucher for that supermarket. Is that how it's working?

Is the voucher for all children in infant school that are entitled to free meals?
I won't get it for my year 3 child as not entitled to it. However a family has just said they got the voucher for both their kids in year 3 and 4, they are not in benefit of free school meals so am really confused why they have got it. They live in a different part of the country to me, so thinking does the rules vary

Please remember this is all very new for schools. They usually only find out about things the same we do. And the Government have a tendency to announce something without actually having anything in place to enable it to be actioned straight away.

In Scotland all primary school children p1 to p3 are entitled to free meals

We're in a loophole seemingly, my DS would be entitled to FSM, but is at an independent school as it was named on his EHCP and is funded by the LA, because no mainstream could meet his needs. FSM department said we can't claim due to him being at an indie, it's up to the school if they offer anything. The school made the right noises to begin with but are now quiet with the Easter break so that's that apparently.

There is one provider but some schools have decided to go with others in the hope they can be refunded. Originally the scheme did not cover the Easter Holidays as the initial advice was it was not funded.

Hence it leaves some schools wondering if they will be reimbursed and other schools yet to have any vouchers. We have funded the holidays via the school budget and will be refunded the £15 because we went via the approved provider. We have ordered vouchers for those qualifying from the 20/4.

We live in wales and a lady from the education department phoned me yesterday to ask if the children had received there fsm vouchers
She gave me a phone number to chase it up and when we did they issued the vouchers online and then asked if we would prefer a direct payment to the bank next time
Both children received the vouchers

I contacted the school again, and they told me that my child isn't entitled, it is in fact means tested so just because he gets fsm via the infant school, that doesn't mean he can get the voucher as it's only for those on certain benefits. He can still get a lunch from the school but not the voucher. Am not annoyed because it's not fair taht others who are not entitled will still get it from their schools, but I won't

If schools are giving it to those who don't qualify in England they will be paying for it themselves. They will have to cut costs somewhere else whereas your school won't need too.

booearing i think a bank payment is much better given how its quite tricky to get shopping at the moment

Free school meal vouchers are only for low income families whose children claim pupil premium

It’s different in Scotland where a number of authorities are giving vouchers for all children in P1-3, as well as those who qualify for means tested FSM.

Just a question, this is just for those who are entitled to FSM? My children are previously cared for so get pupil premium at the school for that. Also one has an Echp because of his additional needs. We haven't had anything from the school regarding phone calls or support, work is set through their online system which the children have been doing so I assume as the teacher can see they are working each day were on the OK list?

They told you exactly what the respondents on here have told you, they're linked to income and the status of FSM, not the universal free school meals. Not sure what was unclear?

You qualify if your child receives Pupil Premium. If your child only gets free school meals because they are in years R, 1 or 2 then they don't get it. There are two different meal systems running. FSM because of Pupil Premium is means tested. Infant free school meals are not.

Nope! The school are saying the company issuing vouchers has missed loads of schools off and we just have to wait. 🤷🏻‍♀️ not very helpful but hey ho.

The council I work for (in Wales) is putting the money into parents bank accounts, but I know a neighbouring council are doing it differently. This caused some problems with children who go to school in a different county to the one they live in. Really posting because I just wanted to say don't be embarrassed about phoning your council about FSMs, I am one of the people answering calls for my council and have had loads of calls about FSM and there is certainly no judgement here, just happy to be able to help 🙂

DS1 is in secondary school. He's school emailed on Tuesday to say that we would be emailed a code every Monday for £15 that would need to be exchanged online for a voucher. The first code would actually be sent to us the following day (Wednesday, as obviously Monday had already passed). We didn't receive and email but have had contact with them since and apparently no one has had a code and they are working on it as fast as they can.

DS2 is in primary. Had a message from his school a couple of weeks ago via an app they use to say that we would receive vouchers from the 16th/17th but would be sent an email that day to confirm they had the correct contact details. Never received and email and have tried contacting them multiple times (phone just rings out and no one is replying to emails) so now I haven't got a clue what's going on.

@IndecentFeminist read the thread properly and it would answer your own question. You must think your being clever with your comment 🙄
The point is I know people who's children are not pupil premium but are getting the voucher. And if you read all the responses you would also see that there is a lot of confusion regarding this

They shouldn't have got anything if they're not pupil premium children. I obviously can't give a reason why they did but as far as I know there aren't any other circumstances. Looked after children etc would come under PP.

The Government fund the £15 for only those who qualify on low income.

If schools wish to fund additional children out of their own budgets that is up to them.

Schools are only being refunded if it doesn't leave them with budget issues. Therefore if you have a good healthy budget as some schools do perhaps they have decided to include others in the scheme at their own cost or perhaps they have negotiated their own systems.

If you have several schools in a MAT you have greater negotiating powers due to the size of your orders.

PP children include lots of children who do not qualify for FSM's.
PP is not the measure.

Each school has their own children who face different issues in that area. If you are including additional children the school will have a reason that may not appear obvious to others.

I had the same email, chose my supermarket and got an email voucher a few days later. This was for dd. Ks1.
She gets pupil premium.
Ds did get pp while in was on maternity leave (single parent) but when I went back to work, it stopped.
So dd qualifies (I work part time, low pay) but for some reason, ds doesn't. He is doing "whatever happens with GCSE " this year.

The Government is now funding these for the Easter holidays so this is slightly out of date but may be helpful to some parents.
schoolsweek.co.uk/coronavirus-dfe-confirms-plans-for-15-a-week-free-school-meal-vouchers/

The online provider the Government has organised is completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of schools trying to use it. I have spent 6 days trying to get my school's order accepted. It's a nightmare but we are all doing our very best!

The FSM delivery has been a shambles.

The original instruction to schools was that the preferred option was that school kitchens would continue to provide meals for either collection or delivery. Some schools did that but most decided it was impossible to manage, either the social distancing at a collection point or the labour of doing the deliveries. Some schools did a weekly food parcel but it was at a time when getting hold of basic food stuffs in large quantities was practically impossible.

We were told that if we couldn't provide actual food we should consider offering vouchers. Guess what was the next thing to go out of stock at Tesco?! TBF they set up electronic ones pretty quickly but the massive surge in demand still meant it took a few days to get the vouchers. Tesco didn't suit all parent, (eg those without cars)

Meantime we were told a national scheme was "coming". That took almost 3 weeks.

We finally got details of the national scheme middle of last week (in the holidays) and were initially told that we "may" use it to provide vouchers for the holiday period but that as this was optional there would be no reimbursement to schools. C. 24 hours later we were told (via the BBC!) that the scheme would be available to cover the holiday and we should organise vouchers for that period. The website couldn't cope and my Finance Officer (who should have been on holiday) was practically in tears with it all by the time I told her to leave it until Tues, at 5pm Thursday.

So, our parents got £30 Tesco vouchers from us to cover the first 2 weeks but are still waiting for the 2 weeks for the holiday, which will hopefully be some time next week.

It is only for those who "qualify" for fsm, not the universal infant free meals.

Can they be used online ?? Dd Is in the shielded group and I'm a lone parent so can't leave her alone to go shopping

My daughter's school (she's in reception) have posted some vouchers they've made that are only valid at a co-op near the school and each one is valid for a 5 day period.

So as a single parent, I have no choice but to take my child into said shop every single week!

I mustn't complain though, the £12.50 a week has really helped.

@bluegrasse That amount is BEFORE any benefits. Don't forget, working parents will get the equivalent of the old working tax credits and child tax credits on top. Plus child benefit (formerly family allowance). It's just referring to the actual earned amount