The Labour Council Group in B&NES is calling on the Liberal Democrat-run Council to auto-enrol every qualifying child for free school meals.

Some 5,000 children in our local authority qualify for the national government-funded support, with that number increasing by 27% between May 2020 and May 2023. At the start of this year, 17% of B&NES state school pupils were eligible (2,500 of which were in primary schools).

The government estimates more than 10% of those eligible don’t claim. If that 10% figure applies to B&NES then it suggests around 2,800 children are missing out.

When a child is registered for free school meals it also triggers extra ‘pupil premium’ funding for the school to use.

Auto-enrolment for free school meals is already in place in Labour-run councils across the country. In those areas, all qualifying families are picked up automatically by admin system and already available data, rather than relying on parents to apply.

The Labour Opposition in B&NES will be moving a motion on FSM auto-enrolment at the Council meeting on 21 November. We hope that all Councillors will back our initiative in the interests of many of the most vulnerable children in our community.

 The Labour motion asks the Lib Dem Cabinet to put auto-enrolment in place by next September, as well as providing regular updates from January to the Children’s Health and Wellbeing Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel to ensure the work is staying on-track.

Launching the motion, B&NES Labour Leader Robin Moss said: “Tackling child poverty is a key priority of the Labour Government.  We have significant pockets of deprivation and struggling families here – B&NES Council need to take full advantage of the funding that government’s made available to them – let’s pull out every stop.”