Schools face having to find £310 million from their own budgets to subsidise the growing cost of free school meals if government funding is not hiked, researchers have warned.
A report from Northumbria University found that the amount schools are having to stump up will balloon by £25 million when free school meals are extended to all pupils from universal credit-claiming families next year.
This would leave the average primary school having to spend £11,000 and the average secondary £25,000 from elsewhere in their budgets.
The report said most schools take the cash from teaching and learning budgets, such as the pupil premium.
Schools have to subsidise the cost of free school meals because government funding of £2.61 a meal is far below the actual cost. The report found caterers “currently charge schools between £2.75 and £3.20 per meal”.
The government announced earlier this year that from 2026 it would extend free school meals to all families claiming universal credit, with more than £1 billion available over three years.
Currently, only those with a pre-benefits household income of below £7,400 are eligible.
Subsidy ‘equivalent to 7,700 teachers’
Researchers from Northumbria and Lincoln universities and Alliance4Children modelled the financial impact of providing free school meals to existing eligible children and the additional recipients under the extension.
They found the cost impact for schools would jump from around £285 million to more than £310 million next year. They said the cost was “equivalent to the cost of over 7,700 teachers’ salaries”.
Professor Greta Defeyter of Northumbria University said the findings were “startling.
“Inflation, rising food prices and increases in national insurance have all impacted on the overall cost to caterers for providing free school meals.
“Many schools are needing to take money from their own individual teaching and learning budgets to top up the difference between the funding they receive from the government and the amount they are charged by the caterer.”
The Department for Education was approached for comment.
