Guidance from Derbyshire County Council regarding free school meals.
Applying for free school meals can save families over £470 per child, per year. Therefore, schools are recommended to encourage all parents to apply using the digital portal.
Families only need to apply once for the entire school life in a Derbyshire setting, as the council's database will follow the child as they move from school to school, and the team are able to run a check on all the data we hold monthly.
Extension to the Free School Meals(FSM) Eligibility Protection
As you will be aware the FSM Team have been advising that the protection for free school meals eligibility ended on 31 March 2025. They also advised that any students who became eligible for the first time after 1 April 2025 would only remain eligible whilst they showed eligible on your SAM reports and once that changed to "no longer eligible", they would be expected to pay for any future meals. The Government/DfE have now advised of the extension to the protection until 1 September 2026.
Full guidance is available from the Gov.UK website.
Any student on your SAM Report with a "No Longer Eligible" status with a start date of, on, or after 1 April 2018, should be treated exactly as any currently eligible student.
The FSM team apologise for the confusion over end dates; as the update came to them from the DfE very late.
Additionally, the Government’s announcement to expand Free School Meals to all children in families receiving universal credit from September 2026 has been welcomed. The FSM team have already made requests with the software provider to ensure they will be checking against the new criteria. They wish to reassure you that this will be in place for next year and they will keep colleagues updated as things move forward.
Further clarification is available by contacting the Free School Meal Team by emailing checking@derbyshire.gov.uk or telephoning the team on 01629 536481.
The benefit of pupil premium is also attached to each child who is eligible for free school meals. In addition to pupil premium paid whilst the pupil is either eligible or protected, the grant is also paid for an additional 6 years after the end of eligibility for the child – also referred to as Ever6.
Children in nursery settings can also be eligible for free school meals, provided they meet the criteria. In addition to meeting the eligibility check, the child must be over 3 years of age and attend at least a two-hour session both immediately prior to and after the lunchtime period.
For further information, please contact the Checking service:
email: checking@derbyshire.gov.uk
telephone: 01629 536481
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