18 February 2026
Around 215,000 children not getting the Free School Meals they're entitled to
New research evaluates improving access to Free School Meals through automatically enrolling all eligible children, our Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer Tilda Ferree explores the implications
What is free school meal auto-enrolment?
Approximately 215,000 children do not receive the free school meal they are entitled to. There are many barriers families face, from stigma, shame and the administrative burden it places on parents.
These families are missing out on a hot meal for their children, and the benefits to children’s learning, behaviour and family finances that this meal confers.
New research from the Fix Our Food consortium, with partners the University of York, Bremner and Co., and The Food Foundation, reveals how local authorities across the country having been seeking to address this problem, by automatically registering entitled families, with an opt-out option.
This ‘auto-enrolment’ ensures as many families as possible receive a free school meal without having to directly apply to schools or local authorities.
However, other local authorities continue to face huge blockers to setting up auto-enrolment.
Barriers faced by local authorities
Fix our Food research explores the enablers and barriers that local authorities face in setting up free school meal auto-enrolment.
Free school meal auto-enrolment not only ensures more children receive a hot lunch every school day, it also delivers additional funding to schools and addresses inequities experienced by the most disadvantaged families.
Local authority staff reported that families from ethnic minority backgrounds, who spoke English or as a second language or lone parent families were a notable proportion of those who benefitted from the auto-enrolment process.
However, as the enablers of auto-enrolment differ by local authority, the result is inconsistent access to free school meals across England.
The case for national free school meal auto-enrolment
Receiving statutory benefits should be easy and straightforward for people who are entitled to them.
The expansion of Free School Meals to every family receiving Universal Credit from September 2026 presents a good opportunity to establish a centralised process of auto-enrolment, overcoming the patchwork of local authority provision and ensuring every child who is entitled receives access to this essential nutritional safety net.
