Research by the Institute for Social and Economic Research highlights the stigma of receiving free school meals. It also says that the fact that children who are eligible for them often have to sit apart from their friends because of lack of space or eat at different times, are key factors that lead to 300,000 families a year not using the benefit despite their entitlement.
More than 1.1 million children are eligible for free school meals, calculated to be worth around £400 a year to parents. They also ensure that children are able to eat a nutritionally balanced meal.
Not claiming for free school meals also means that schools miss out on accessing funding for the Pupil Premium, which is currently worth around £600 a year for every child who has been registered for free school meals at any time in the past six years, as well as children in care who have been looked after for more than six months, and children whose parents are in the armed forces.
Schools are only able to claim the funding for children whose parents have declared that they are eligible for free school meals.
Local authorities have asked schools to actively encourage parents to sign up for free school meals in order to access the additional £600 per pupil.
At the weekend, schools minister David Laws told the Liberal Democrats conference that the pupil premium would increase to £900 a year per pupil in September 2014.
The research by Angus Holford at ISER, based at the University of Essex, found the Scottish government’s experiment to introduce universal entitlement to free school meals in areas of high deprivation raised take-up among those already entitled to it.
The study looked at the results of the experiment carried out in Scotland during the 2007-08 academic year, when free school meals were temporarily made available to all children between five and eight-years-old in five areas of the country.
This led to a rise in take-up among pupils not registered for free school meals by 14 percentage points from 38 per cent.
It also led to more children who were already registered for free school meals to increase their take-up by 5 percentage points from 86 per cent.
'The magnitude of the effect is such that in a typical school a ten percentage point rise in peer-group take-up would reduce non-participation by almost a quarter,' the study said.
'This positive peer effect arises because higher peer group take-up reduces the probability that an FSM-participant is stigmatised by needing to eat apart from his friends, and provides a favourable signal for the quality and desirability of school meals.'
Mr Holford then studied take-up in every other primary school in Scotland. Elsewhere, anonymous payment schemes – where parents pre-register to pay or to receive the benefit online for example – also raised take-up substantially.
Mr Holford said the research shows that peer pressure and prejudice affect parents' decisions about whether to apply for free school meals.
‘Peer pressure is undoubtedly important. Results show that in a typical school a ten percentage point rise in peer-group take-up would reduce non-participation by almost a quarter. This is both because children would rather eat with their friends, and because people set greater store by the actions of their friends and classmates than information from authorities.
‘Schools should let all classmates eat together, at the same time, to reduce any stigmatisation. Introducing anonymised payment schemes would also dramatically increase take-up. Government initiatives to increase take-up would be best targeted at year groups in the most deprived areas rather than at individuals, as children are obviously responsive to the choices made by their school friends.’
Claire Rick, Children’s Food Trust spokesperson, said, ‘At a time when many families are struggling to make ends meet, it’s never been so important to do everything we can to encourage them to register for free school meals if they qualify, and to make sure that children then take up their meals once they’re registered. Research shows that when children eat better, they do better in class, and for many children their school lunch can be the only proper meal they eat in a day. Strategies like allowing all children to eat together – regardless of the type of lunch they have, and making sure that children having free school meals can’t be identified as such, are good starting points for any school wanting to work on this.’
- Take-up of Free School Meals: price effects and peer effects by Angus Holford is published by the Institute for Social and Economic Research: working paper series 2012.