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National Audit Office launches investigation into FSM scheme

The NAO has announced that it will be investigating the Free School Meal (FSM) Voucher Scheme. The scheme has been widely criticised, and school staff and parents faced huge challenges. 

The scheme was introduced at the end of March when the Government recognised that partial school closures meant that many of the 1.4 million students eligible for meals were not able to access them. Despite schools finding ways to deliver meals and offer lunches for collection, take up in many areas has been much lower than anticipated, with many barriers to this from staffing to geography and transport issues. 

The scheme offered eligible students £15 per week in supermarket vouchers from contractor Edenred. In the initial weeks of the scheme issues included inability to access the system to request the vouchers, massive delays in receiving vouchers, and even parents who were told vouchers were invalid at checkouts. This placed a huge burden on school support staff, particularly School Business Professionals who were reporting that the only time they could access the system to process their requests was late at night or in the early hours of the morning. 

Despite the scheme being introduced, food insecurity has increased with more than 200,000 children having had to skip meals because their family couldn’t access sufficient food during lockdown according to The Food Foundation. Academics at Northumbria University have also identified that the scheme has led to a massive decrease in fruit and vegetables consumed by FSM students, and an increase in sugary snacks and drinks. The scheme has also been criticised as in some more isolated areas the only nearby supermarkets which will accept vouchers are more expensive, and affordable places to shop locally are not included in the scheme. This was a problem experienced by a local Northumberland primary school.

NAO’s investigation will ‘set out the facts about the free school meals scheme’ and say they will be looking at the Department for Education’s objectives, their choice of contractor, how the scheme performed and costs. 

If you would like to provide evidence for the investigation, please email the NAO investigation team at enquiries@nao.org.uk putting the investigation title (‘Free school meals voucher scheme’) in the subject line.

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