Extending Free School Meals
A milestone, not a finish line...
Today’s announcement that free school meals (FSMs) will be extended to all children in families receiving Universal Credit by September 2026 is a long-overdue breakthrough; and one that campaigners, educators, and families alike should feel proud of helping to achieve.
After years of pressure from organisations such as the Child Poverty Action Group, education unions, and regional campaigners, including the North East Child Poverty Commission, the government has confirmed it will expand eligibility, benefitting up to 1.7 million children in the long term, with 500,000 gaining access in the shorter term.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the decision “one of the biggest interventions we can make to put more money in parents’ pockets, tackle the stain of poverty, and set children up to learn.”
But while the announcement rightly marks a shift, it represents a milestone not a finish line.
Hunger for policy shifts
In a nation where 4.45 million children are growing up in poverty, where educators report rising numbers of pupils arriving at school too hungry to learn, and where eligibility criteria have excluded hundreds of thousands of children in need, this change matters enormously.
The problem of families losing access to Free School Meals (FSMs) as their income rises, often referred to as the ‘cliff-edge’, has been worsening over time. When Universal Credit (UC) was introduced, all recipients were eligible for FSMs. However, in 2018, a strict income cap of £7,400 was introduced and has not been updated since. As a result, each rise in the National Living Wage makes it easier for families to exceed this limit, even if they’re only working a small number of hours. Back in 2018, working 18 hours a week at minimum wage kept families within the threshold; more recently, just 12 hours of work can push them over it; disqualifying them from support even while they remain in low-paid, insecure work.
So it is important to applaud the fact that today’s news means removing the arbitrary £7,400 income threshold. It means fewer forms, fewer barriers, and fewer children falling through the cracks of a system that has failed to keep pace with modern hardship.
As Beth Farhat of the North East Child Poverty Commission said:
“No child should face being unable to fulfil their potential because they are hungry, and no school or college should have to pick up the pieces of what has been an inadequate free school meals system for far too long.”
This is not just about hunger. It demonstrates that policy can make a difference to dignity, equity and creating the right conditions for children to flourish in the classroom and beyond.
Hidden impacts
Importantly, this shift may also offer relief to school leaders and educators, many of whom have quietly gone above and beyond to plug gaps left by previous FSM policy.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, schools across the UK distributed food parcels to families they knew were struggling; even if they did not meet the narrow eligibility criteria. Many leaders tried to find ways to stretch the criteria; knowing the limits were set by policy, not need. This is still happening across the sector today.
The expansion of FSM eligibility could free up some time and energy that schools currently spend navigating or working around restrictions; time that can now be redirected into proactive, targeted support for other pupils in need.
I would welcome further research into the emotional and operational burden that has been placed on schools to compensate for an inadequate system and the positive ripple effects that may now follow this long-awaited change. If you know of any research I can signpost here, do reach out.
Hunger for more
I cannot help but be more hungry for more. Eligibility is not the same as access. As Pete Henshaw, editor of SecEd notes, the change will not be extended to Pupil Premium funding nor home-to-school transport extended rights, funding for which will continue to be “based on the existing FSMs threshold”.
Additionally, thousands of families still miss out on free school meals due to the lack of automatic enrolment. Alongside this, stigma, language barriers, digital exclusion and administrative confusion mean many eligible children still go without.
This is why Tees Valley Education continues to call for auto-enrolment as a crucial next step. The evidence is clear, the mechanism exists, and the cost of inaction is too high. Policy change without system change risks leaving the same families behind and deepening the issues that are more systematic than hunger.
This policy announcement is a positive signal from government, but it must be the first of many. As the IFS has pointed out, even when implemented, this expansion will not lift large numbers of children out of poverty. Structural reforms are needed to address the root causes. Hunger is merely the symptom not the problem.
I also believe that we must continue to challenge the two-child benefit cap, ensure this new threshold is reflected in Pupil Premium eligibility, and extend support such as free school transport.
And we must resist the temptation to assume this one change is a silver bullet. It isn’t.
People. Policy. Place.
At Tees Valley Education, we believe tackling child poverty requires more than compassion or care. It’s why our PLACE work was launched in partnership with the Fair Education Alliance, Bloomberg and other supportive partnerships. Tackling child poverty at scale requires clarity, collaboration and courageous civil leadership.
This is why we continue to work alongside the North East Child Poverty Commission, the Fair Education Alliance, the Food Foundation, and the Child Poverty Action Group amplifying evidence and driving change. More on this here.
(Source: Tees Valley Education and the Food Foundation, House of Lords, 2025)
Our three-P approach: People, Policy, and Place helps us to achieve this.
People: recognising the expertise and living experiences of children, families, and educators. Forming partnerships and professional development to help this.
Policy: advocating for systemic solutions that remove barriers, not just ease symptoms.
Place: grounding our service to others in local realities, because context matters and solutions must fit.
This is how we frame leadership in our schools; not just as management or development of learning, but as civil leadership for social justice.
This FSM expansion is welcome. It will help families. It will allow more children to sit down to learn with full stomachs.
But, at best, it is a starter on the menu of much more needed to achieve equity.
Every hungry child is one too many. As long as children are being held back by poverty in one of the world’s wealthiest nations, we all have a responsibility to hold our appetite for more.