Latest news with #free school meals
The Sun
6 days ago
- General
- The Sun
Parents could get free school meals for kids during summer holidays but they must apply NOW
PARENTS could get a helping hand with free school meals throughout the summer holidays. The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme will offer support worth £100s after it was given the green light to run for another financial year. 1 It is funded by the Department for Education but is administered by local authorities, so each area varies in its offerings. Martin Lewis, the Money Saving Expert, has issued a warning to parents to apply for the scheme ahead of the deadline. He warned that HAF isn't automatic and even if you've had help during previous school holidays, you will have to apply each time. Parents will need to apply for free school meals every year before the school year starts in September. Most local authorities offer to help families with children in receipt of benefits-related free school meals. But local councils are also allowed to offer help to children outside of this group. The HAF programme was rolled out in England in 2021, following successful pilots between 2018 and 2020. The government says research has found the school holidays can be "pressure points" for families, leading to a "holiday experience gap". Children from low-income households are less likely to get access to organised out-of-school activities, more likely to experience social isolation and see their nutrition and physical health suffer. The HAF programme looks to address this, by providing free food and activities to children. The initiative is mostly for Reception-aged children up to Year 11. The application process and what help you can get varies based on where you live. For example, Waltham Forest Council, in North East London, is offering holiday clubs and a daily meal over the Easter school holidays to children on benefits-related free school meals. The provision is open to children from Reception up to Year 11. Children in the borough are entitled to four sessions across the holidays. If you are not eligible for the HAF programme in your local area, you might be able to get help via the Household Support Fund. The latest round of funding closes on March 31, but a new round is running from April 2025 until March 2026. The current round of funding is worth £421million and has been split between councils in England who then decide how to allocate their share. Free money is usually transferred to your bank account or you are awarded vouchers to spend on energy bills or at supermarkets. You usually qualify for help if you are on a low income, benefits or classed as vulnerable. Speak to your local council to see what help is on offer. You can find what council area you fall under by visiting
BBC News
12-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
'My mentor at uni is amazing - others may not get the same help'
Wider eligibility for free school meals could lead to stretched support for children who need help after leaving school, a leading charity has said. The Social Mobility Foundation said the expanded support for children in school was welcome, but warned that availability for their mentoring scheme was already "limited" due to comes after the government announced 500,000 more children would be eligible for free school meals from September next government said it did not fund the charity's mentoring scheme directly, but was committed to supporting more people from disadvantaged backgrounds in work and higher education. Ministers have also said the changes to free school meal eligibility will "help families who need it most".The Social Mobility Foundation provides a university and careers mentoring scheme to help young people who have been on free school meals or are the first in their families to go into higher charity said more government funding should be directed towards work experience and careers advice for those from lower-income households, to support people going to university who may not have the personal connections others might have which could help them find work in their chosen field Atkinson, the charity's chief executive, said more students becoming eligible for the scheme after receiving free school meals would mean "these places would be in even greater demand"."The most incredible gift we can give people is our time and attention, and this scheme allows you to do that," she said."Mentoring is really precious because mentors don't want anything from these young people, except to help them achieve their ambitions." Nimra Ahmeed, from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, said she would have been "lost" without the mentor who has helped guide her through her time at university so in her penultimate year studying law at the University of Manchester, 20-year-old Nimra said she hoped more awareness of schemes like the one she has benefited from would help take away the stigma around it."Some people might not want to reach out as they may feel it's something to be embarrassed about, but for me it's been so helpful," she said her mentor, 54-year-old solicitor Natalie Maloney, "took away how daunting it is going into [university] without knowing anything about it". 'We don't employ people like you' Natalie, who qualified as a solicitor in the 1990s and volunteers her time as a mentor, said the scheme was an important tool in maintaining a "level playing field" between students. She said it was crucial to give "real talent" a chance within competitive working involvement in the scheme was borne out of her own experience of trying to break into the industry, as she was also the first in her family to go to claimed she was told by one firm that "we don't employ people like you", after a string of failed applications."That's why I am so passionate to help others - I know what it's like," she said. The most recent government data suggests there has been a wider gap than ever before between the number of students who were eligible for free school meals at school, and the number of those who weren't, going on to study at university in recent of longer-term data by the Office for National Statistics in 2022 also suggests those on free school meals traditionally go on to earn significantly less than their peers from higher-income households. Social Mobility Foundation boss Sarah said that data was why she believes schemes like mentoring, which the charity has been running for two decades, were so said the scheme started when those in various corporate sectors realised they were missing out on "talented people" who simply didn't have connections to the industry. And with more people receiving free school meals in the coming years, more are going to be eligible for the scheme's support as they leave school and enter the world of work, she said."The charity is doing a great job, but we need more help," she said."Talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn't."
