Mayor to continue funding groundbreaking universal free school meals policy next academic year (2024/ 2025) saving London families up to £1,000 per child as cost-of-living continues to badly hit families across the country

Sadiq proposes providing £140m to continue groundbreaking universal free school meals for state primary schoolchildren in the capital for 2024/2025

Up to 287,000 children across London are already benefitting from free school meals this academic year (2023/ 2024) after the Mayor stepped in with historic funding – helping parents financially and providing children with a guaranteed healthy, nutritious meal, leading to better performance

New analysis shows the policy will save families up to £1,000 over two years per child as the cost-of-living crisis continues to hit

New polling shows more than a third (35 per cent of parents) or carers of children under 18 are buying less food and essentials

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today announced historic plans to continue funding free school meals for London’s state primary schoolchildren for the next academic year as the cost-of-living crisis continues to hit families across the country.

The Mayor is proposing to spend £140m in his 2024/25 budget to extend free school meals for another year from September, with the meals helping parents financially, reducing stigma for those who receive them and helping to improve and improving nutrition and school engagement.

The move will extend his unprecedented £135m programme which is currently helping to deliver meals to up to 287,000 children each day and has funded more than 17million meals already between September and Christmas.

Sadiq’s proposed extension will help hundreds of thousands of children who don’t qualify for Government help receive the meals for another year – saving families up to £1,000 over the two years per child as they struggle with the cost-of-living crisis.

A report by the Child Poverty Action Group and the National Education Union has shown that providing all children free school meals has a wide range of benefits. It improves financial and psychological security for parents as they don’t have to worry about the cost of food at school, improves nutrition and school engagement with improved concentration and engagement from pupils, and reduces stigma for children who would ordinarily get means-tested meals. It also improves relationships between families and schools as there is no need to collect lunch money or administer debt, changes eating habits as pupils try new foods and helps create a richer school life, with families able to invest in extra-curricular activities.

The announcement comes as new polling from YouGov, commissioned by City Hall, has found that more than a third (35 per cent) of parents or carers of children under 18 are buying less food and essentials, with 41 per cent using less water, energy or fuel to help them manage living costs. Three in ten (30 per cent) say they are ‘financially struggling’. Separate polling from YouGov commissioned by City Hall has shown that parents whose children have school dinners overwhelmingly (92 per cent) support universal free school meals, with that it saves them time (71 per cent), that they are healthy (62 per cent) and that they are free (62 per cent) among the top reasons why they chose to have the meals.

As a result of the Mayor’s current funding, this school year is the first time ever that free school meals have been available to all primary-aged pupils in state-funded mainstream schools, special schools and pupil referral units in the capital.

Children in Years 3 to 6 in primary school had previously only received free school meals if they lived in households on universal credit earning less than £7,400 a year – after tax and not including benefits, and regardless of the number of children in the family. That means, without the Mayor’s additional funding, many children from working families in poverty were not able to receive free school meals.

The proposed new funding will see boroughs offered £3 per meal to help to continue to deliver the meals from September. This is 18.5 per cent higher than the amount they receive from Government, who previously increased its funding from £2.41 to £2.53 per meal this year following the Mayor’s unprecedented intervention.

Sadiq’s free school meals funding is a key part of his programme to support Londoners with the cost-of-living crisis. That includes investing £3.46bn into building the genuinely affordable homes Londoners need and £400m on skills and employment programmes to support Londoners to find more secure work, as well as more than £80m to help those struggling with the rising cost of living to tackle fuel poverty, supporting private renters, connecting Londoners to welfare advice and tackling food insecurity. The Mayor has also provided an emergency funding package of more than £3.5m that has helped to provide more then 10m free meals during school holidays and at weekends to low-income Londoners struggling with the spiralling cost of living since April.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Delivering free school meals has been one of my proudest moment as Mayor as I have seen the difference it has made to the children receiving them and to their families. I am thrilled to announce my intention to extend this lifeline for families for yet another year.

“I know from personal experience what a difference these meals can make and it’s been fantastic to hear from teachers how much better children are performing and also how much parents and their children have benefited, with parents not having to worry about how to provide their children with a healthy, nutritious meal during the school day. Sadly Londoners continue to struggle with the cost-of-living crisis and with the Government failing to step forward to deliver these meals, we have worked hard to find the money to provide this vital funding for the next academic year.

“I will continue to do all I can to help families cope with the cost-of-living crisis as we build a fairer and more prosperous London for all.”

Chef and Campaigner Jamie Oliver said: "Huge kudos to Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, for extending free school meals across London for another academic year. Not only will it help families make ends meet, but evidence proves that children having access to delicious, nutritious food at school is the foundation of their wellbeing and educational success. It’s more than just nourishing their bodies – it's a fundamental support system that significantly impacts their future. At a time when so many families are struggling financially, supporting free school meals has never been more vital. It’s a lifeline for children, providing the nourishment they need to thrive, despite these challenging times."

Chef Tom Kerridge said: “This is great news for so many parents feeling the pressure from the cost-of-living crisis. No child should go hungry because their parents cannot afford to buy them lunch. This latest announcement from the Mayor of London will reduce the burden on parents and carers across the capital, hit hard by rising costs, it is really good news.”

Nikita Sinclair, Head of Children’s Health and Food Programme, Impact on Urban Health, said: “It’s fantastic that this policy has been extended for another academic year. Free school meals remain a key way to ensure all children receive the nutrition they need to learn and thrive in school, and to support households under financial pressure. Children across the country deserve the same chance – national government needs to follow suit and urgently expand entitlement to free school meals.” 

Barbara Crowther, Children's Food Campaign Manager at Sustain, said: “This is very happy news to start the new year! A hot nutritious lunch at school is a healthy investment in children’s learning and development, and providing food to all pupils equally makes for more inclusive, effective and harmonious classrooms. We applaud the Mayor for extending primary meals funding for another academic year, building on the excellent foundations that have been laid by London’s primary schools and councils in recent months. Whilst this is brilliant news for London’s primary schoolchildren and their families, there is still an appalling failure to bring national school meals policy up to date with the realities of 2024. We call on politicians of every colour to step into the policy vacuum and set out plans to expand healthy school food progressively to children of all ages across the UK.”

Naomi Duncan, Chief Executive, Chefs in Schools, said: "We’re delighted to hear that the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, is extending Universal Primary Free School Meals. We’ve seen first-hand the huge benefits this policy has had since its introduction. By extending the programme, the Mayor is ensuring that hundreds of thousands of children in London continue to receive the benefits of a hot, nutritious meal every school lunchtime. The initiative was a landmark moment in the fight for greater access to vital nutrition for young children, never more important than now in the context of rapidly increasing malnutrition and food poverty. A meal in school provides that nutritional safety net, but also fuel for learning and a vital opportunity for education about food.”

Notes to editors

The Mayor is proposing to spend £140m as part of his budget for the Greater London Authority (GLA) Group for 2024-25. The government’s publication of the provisional local government settlement just before Christmas enabled the Mayor to confirm that this is affordable.

The GLA Group includes the GLA, Transport for London (TfL), the Metropolitan Police Service, the London Fire Brigade, the London Legacy Development Corporation and Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation.

The Mayor’s draft budget for the GLA Group is due to be published on 17 January 2024 and the final draft budget on 14 February 2024. www.london.gov.uk/budget

To further support schools, boroughs have been provided with a wide range of advice on best practice including how to encourage all parents to continue to register for the Government Free School Meal scheme – this ensures schools continue to receive the maximum additional Pupil Premium funding from Government, which is linked to Government Free School Meal take up.

Funding has been allocated to the five London boroughs that already provided universal free school meals to their primary pupils as if they were not currently providing this function. The intention is to encourage them to use these funds to support families in financial hardship as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.

The Universalism multiplier – a report by CPAG and the National Education Union (NEU) who conducted surveys and interviews across two London boroughs which offered free school meals (FSM) to all children during the 2022/2023 academic year. https://cpag.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/report/universalism-multiplier

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1085 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 8th to 14th December 2023. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all London adults (aged 18+). Parents or carers of children under 18 sample size is 233. ‘Financially struggling’ is the combined responses for “I am having to go without my basic needs and/or rely on debt to pay for my basic needs” and “I'm struggling to make ends meet” (https://data.london.gov.uk/gla-cost-of-living-polling/2/)

Parents, whose children have school dinners, overwhelmingly support universal free school meals (92 per cent tend to or strongly support the scheme). Amongst the top reasons why parents chose for their child to have school dinners this term were that it saves them time (71 per cent), that they are healthy (62 per cent) and that they are free (62 per cent). All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 318 parents or carers of children in school years 3 to 6. Fieldwork was undertaken between 20th November to 4th December 2023. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all London parents or carers of children in school years 3 to 6.  The full report is available at: https://data.london.gov.uk/gla-opinion-research/press-releases/