Free School Meals

How to process a Free School Meal application for a No Recourse to Public Funds household

As explained on our Apply for a Free School Meal page, schools will be given a self-declaration and supporting evidence from the families requesting Free School Meals.

You should record eligible Free School Meals pupils who qualify through the NRPF criteria in the termly school census, in the same way as all other Free School Meals pupils.

You should retain evidence of the application including the self-declaration and any supporting documentation for usual audit purposes.

Further information and confirmation of support evidence from GOV.UK.

How to report a change of circumstances by the school

If you are a reporting a change and you work in a school, you will need the following information.

• The child’s first name & surname
• The child’s date of birth
• The Housing Benefit reference. This reference starts with a 5 or 6 and is 9 characters long.

This information can be located on your school’s free school meal portal and must be entered accurately. If we are unable to trace the child, we may contact the person who completed the form to request additional information before the change of circumstances can be actioned. Please make sure your email address is included in the school’s details page to prevent any additional delays with confirming information.

You can only include one child per change of circumstances form. If you need to complete multiple changes this will require multiple applications submitting.

Tell us about a change in circumstances

We have shared this information with all schools by email. To ensure we protect data and have an audit record of the reported change we will no longer be accepting emails with spreadsheets attached.

What if I am a school that needs to query a pupil's entitlement

All schools have access to an online portal where they can confirm Free School Meal entitlement.

If you are having technical difficulties accessing the portal please contact the team who will forward your request to our Systems team to investigate. 

If you have a query that cannot be answered through the portal, please contact us.