Universal FSM for Infant-aged pupils

[MrsPotatoHeadsSheeWee]

I dropped some forms off at primary today in anticipation of DC starting Reception in September and asked about the lunch options and was told it'll be £X per day for a school lunch.

Has the universal free school meals entitlement for all infant-aged children ended?

A quick look online and I can't see any official guidance ending it, but I have been in a baby/toddler haze for coming up 4 years and could have missed something.

Must be a mistake. The scheme is still running. Maybe check again with the office?

No it's still on. Reception to year 2 get free school lunches.

It depends where the school is.

In England all children attending Reception, Y1 or Y2 at a government funded school (i.e. all schools other than independent schools) are entitled to free school lunches.

In Scotland this entitlement only applies to children attending local council schools. It does not apply to children attending faith schools.

In Wales and Northern Ireland there is no universal entitlement to free school meals for infants. Free meals are only available to families where the parents are in receipt of certain benefits.

Thank you all. Maybe the woman in the Office was having a brain fuz day too.

Thank you for the more detailed info PHR. That's interesting - we're a LA maintained school in England - the Lib Dems presented the policy as a win they were proud of; it seems that it isn't particularly well spread, or that universal.

That's the way of English policies and announcements - often treated in the media as applying to the whole of the UK rather than just England.

Mind you, Boris does that too!

England makes up 84% of the U.K. population so pretty good coverage. Education is a devolved area so individual parliaments have control over whether to offer free school meals or not.