Somerset schoolchildren could be able to access free school meals more easily following a key council vote.
At present, parents whose children are eligible for free school meals have to 'opt in' when they are enrolled - with many being put off by either the amount of bureaucracy or the persisting social stigma.
Somerset Council has now backed a motion, put forward by Labour group leader Councillor Leigh Redman, for children to be enrolled for free school meals automatically, with parents being able to 'opt out' if they wish.
The council will now work to set out a timetable for this change, which will bring it in line with its neighbours in Devon and Cornwall.
When a child is registered for free school meals, their school also receives additional funding from the Department for Education (DfE) via the 'pupil premium' - a measure introduced by the coalition government in the 2010s, aimed at improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.
Mr Redman (who represents the Bridgwater North and Central division) told the full council on Wednesday afternoon (July 15) that thousands of Somerset children - and, by extension, their schools - were currently missing out on support.
He said: "At its heart, this motion is about something very simple: ensuring that children receive support that they are already entitled to receive.
"Across the county, we know there are children who qualify for free school meals but are not registered. Children miss out not because they are ineligible, but because the current system relies on parents navigating paperwork.
"Eligible children can miss out due to the complexity of the system, lack of awareness or the stigma that some families still feel when asking for help.
"The result is that children can miss out on a nutritious meal during the school day, while schools miss out on funding designed to support disadvantaged pupils."
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Mr Redman (who chairs the council's children and education scrutiny committee) proposed the following changes:
- The council design and implement an 'opt out' automatic registration for free school meals, using existing council tax and housing benefit data, within six months - with a report to the scrutiny committee
- Ensure this system complies with data protection rules and that families are notified in a "hassle-free" manner
- Work with Somerset schools and multi-academy trusts to ensure a smooth transition to the new system
He added: "This is fundamentally about removing barriers. It also aligns directly with our ambition to give every child the best start in life.
"As a council, we have consistently said that we want children and young people to thrive, to achieve their potential and to success regardless of background or circumstances. If we are serious about this ambition, then we must all be serious about removing barriers."
The motion received widespread support from all parties within the chamber, with several councillors sharing their personal experiences of their school days.
Councillor Lucy Trimnell (Conservative, Wincanton and Bruton) said: "I'm very supportive of this in principle. I worked in education for many years, and most of my work was with children in receipt of the pupil premium.
"I know how important a good meal is to children, and it is a lifeline for many children."
Council leader Bill Revans - a former schoolteacher - said his administration had been working on this change, but progress had been stymied by the ongoing changes to the council's revenue and benefits system (with the legacy systems from the district councils not yet being amalgamated).
Mr Revans - who represents the North Petherton division - said: "This is a subject that we've been working on this for some time; I've also been working on this on a different stage with the County Council Network.
"We've been trying to encourage councils to do this all over the country. Our colleagues in Cornwall did a really good job of rolling it out two years ago, and Devon County Council managed to do it despite being in a two-tier system - they had to get all the district councils to co-operate with that data sharing process.
"Doing this in Somerset will cost us some money in order to unlock the funding for schools through the pupil premium. We need to get that business case moving forward.
"All our revenue and benefits teams have been migrating from five different systems onto one; if we had pushed at that time, it would have been an extra pressure on that service.
"That doesn’t mean we aren’t fully in favour of the principle of this. Once we've got the migration and integration of the benefits system in place, we will be able to deliver this."
Councillor Diogo Rodrigues, leader of the opposition Conservative group, said: "I fully welcome this. I was one of those kids in school who had free school meals, and I want the opportunity given to everyone who is entitled to it."
Councillor Sam Phripp (Liberal Democrat, Mendip Hills) said: "I was a child of a single parent family; I'm one of five siblings, and my mum was in the difficult position of trying to choose whether to feed her children or herself in the early-1990s.
"I missed out on free school means because there was a stigma surrounding who would apply for them. This should mean that children should be able to go to school, learn and feel full, satisfied and well."
The full council voted unanimously to approve the motion after around half an hour's debate.
Councillor Heather Shearer, portfolio holder for children's services, said that the business case for this change would be informed by best practice from other councils who already had an 'opt-out' system.
Ms Shearer (who represents the Mendip West division) said: "There will be a business plan approach to make sure that we can afford this. I think we all know the benefit to this, but we do have to go through the right processes.
"I have been talking to my opposite numbers across the south west to get the best learning on this.
"It's not a case of flicking a switch and suddenly we get it. We probably could not have brought this forward before now."
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