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10 June 2025
Last week, the Government announced that from the start of the 2026 school year, every pupil in England whose household is on Universal Credit will have a new entitlement to free school meals. They estimate that this will mean roughly 500,000 more children becoming eligible.
This is a very welcome, as we know Free School Meals bring multiple benefits – they provide a nutritional safety net, enhance children's health, and they help children learn.
In tandem, the Government said they are “also acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the School Food Standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance.” Food for Life is among the experts they are consulting.
It was way back in 2016 that the Conservative Government committed to updating the School Food Standards to bring them in line with the latest evidence on fibre and sugar. But that never happened.
There are several updates that are needed. In addition to getting more beans and pulses on plates, and curtailing sugar consumption, there are grounds for reviewing the standards to ensure they deliver even more veg and less processed meat, while encouraging predominantly minimally processed ingredients. Parallel procurement reforms can help ensure that food served is British and higher quality.
There are challenges specific to secondary schools that the Government must consider, as well as the question of implementation, compliance monitoring, and funding.
Last week, Food for Life joined a roundtable co-chaired by Stephen Morgan MP (Minister for Early Education) and Ashley Dalton MP (Minister for Public Health and Prevention), along with other actors in the school food system.
Both ministers expressed enthusiasm for updating the standards, and the roundtable also considered how monitoring of compliance should equally be a focus, and how realising the full benefit of updated standards will require a whole school approach.
Food for Life has extensive experience both in verifying compliance with standards and supporting schools with a whole school approach, and we are delighted to have been invited to advise the government on an ongoing basis as this work develops.
Funding levels for school food are too low. Schools also receive funding for different food interventions through a variety of mechanisms – there is inconsistency in how funding is calculated and distributed, and this leads to confusion and means that how money is spent on food varies from school to school.
To address this, we are inviting the Department for Education to review the school funding system, with the aim of creating a single simple and transparent funding mechanism that gives schools consistency and clarity on allocations and associated conditions of grants. This work should be undertaken in parallel with the School Food Standards review.
One message voiced loudly throughout the roundtable was that updated standards should not be forced ON schools and caterers but developed in dialogue. Pupils, parents, lunchtime supervisors, cooks, caterers, head teachers and governors all have essential perspectives to offer. A diversity of voices should help shape the process.
Food for Life looks forward to working with the Government to support the development of new School Food Standards, and we promise to take every opportunity to consult our networks, bringing voices from the front line to the table.