Deborah Bates

Free Meals - paying cash instead of providing a meal

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HI,

Regarding the provision of free meals to students, please could you clarify a point in the following section within the funding guide.

The first bullet point states “fewer than 50 students in total on roll” does this mean fewer than 50 students eligible for Free Meals OR 50 students in total eligible or otherwise ?

ESFA expects that a meal, voucher or credit will be provided to eligible students. However, this may not be practical in some situations and institutions are permitted to make cash payments to students in the following exceptional circumstances:

Students attending institutions that meet all of the following criteria:

·        fewer than 50 students in total on roll

·        no catering or kitchen facilities on site

·        no suitable food outlets locally that will agree to take part in a credit or voucher scheme

 Many thanks

 

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Martin West

“roll” is a term that is frequently used to mean either the pupils at the school and/or the number of pupils at the school.

HTH

Deborah Bates

Thanks Martin.  

So, nothing to do with the amount of eligible Free Meals students at a particular location. 

Where we have locations that do not have catering facilities on-site and/or are unable to reach an agreement with a local supplier to provide meals for eligible students, we are considering the option of paying weekly via BACS instead so that they can purchase a meal of their choice. 

However, most of our locations have more than 50 students, but in the main only between 10 > 30 eligible Free Meals students on roll so this one caveat rules us out of the exceptional circumstances set in the funding guide. 

Many thanks