By Georgina Burt, Senior Education Policy Officer at Child Poverty Action Group, and Matija Tomanovic, National Campaigns Manager at the National Education Union
Schools are complex ecosystems, and the relationships and experiences children and parents have at school can define their experience of education. The vast body of evidence on the benefits of universal free school meals has so far looked at the impact they have on attainment, health outcomes and attendance. However, to fully understand the effects, we must also understand how they impact on wider aspects of school life and the ripple effects they can have on the relationships and practices that occur in schools.
A recent report from Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) and the National Education Union (NEU) has identified new and previously unexplored benefits of universal free school meals, for children, parents and schools themselves. The findings are based on interviews and survey data that aim to understand the experiences of universal free school meal programmes by those who receive and administer them.
The report explores what difference universal free school meals makes to day-to-day life at school for pupils and parents and the impact that it has on the running of schools for school staff, alongside saving families money.
To complement and contribute new insights to the existing body of research we explored the day-to-day realities of a means-tested school food system. We looked practically at what happens to school life when means-testing is removed and a universal approach to school food is introduced and embedded. We gathered the views of school staff and parents in six primary schools in two London boroughs where there is long-standing universal free school meal provision. This initial exploration detailed in the report found that where universal meals are available for pupils, families and schools, there are a wide range of benefits.
The report found that universal free school meals can:
- Provide greater financial and psychological security for families. Families have less worry and more money to spend on food and household essentials. They were also able to invest in other areas of family life, such as paying for their children to join sports clubs and purchasing devices for homework.
- Improve nutrition and school engagement. School staff told us they felt more confident that children were ready to learn, and that they noticed greater engagement in lessons.
- Reduce stigma and social exclusion. Means-testing lunchtime drives divisions between children and acts as a barrier to families taking up free school meals. Children are also often aware of who is struggling to pay for lunches and facing dinner money debt issues. Universal provision helps to address these inequalities and stops children being singled out.
- Improve home/school relationships. School staff spend time they previously devoted to following up on school lunch debt to communicating with parents about enrichment activities and trips.
- Change children’s eating habits. The communal experience of eating with their peers meant children were more adventurous in their dietary preferences.
Taken together, the report concludes that these effects can be seen as a having a multiplier effect on the investment made. This analysis suggests that universal free school meals can enrich the education and lives of children, offer families more capacity and resource to spend quality time with their children, and strengthen the relationship between families and schools. For parents, children and schools it’s win-win.
This report demonstrates what difference free school meals make to families, pupils and schools when universal lunches are embedded into life at school, and all pupils are offered the same experience at lunchtime. It serves as a call-to-action that free school meals should be for all and that the removal of dining room divisions brings a wide range of benefits to the whole school community.
Since the report launch, the Mayor of London has announced that all primary pupils in London will receive free school lunches throughout the next academic year (2024/25). This is a welcome step, however too many children are still missing out elsewhere and the government needs to take action to ensure that all school-aged children in England get a lunch at school, starting with those in primary schools.
Find out more about the NEU’s ongoing campaign at: Free School Meals for All.
Find out more about CPAG’s research and campaigning work on school costs at: Cost of the School Day.
The full report is available here: The Universalism Multiplier.
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