Academy, charity and governance expert, passionate about the environment, Trustee Confederation of School Trusts, former Audit Partner and Head of Education at Bishop Fleming Chartered Accountants, ,
Academies, many of you know I have been flagging for the last 3 years the inequitable position for Free School Meals. Well this might be your answer to getting more FSM funding. Read on. On 16 July 2019 the Education Committee published a 10 year plan for school and college funding. In there it stated that the Department should consider whether it supports the principle of automatic enrolment for FSM. The report also stated that in 2013 the Department estimated around 160,000 children in England were not claiming FSM (Pupils not claiming Free School Meals 2013) In the DfE response it stated there was no unclaimed pupil premium, as the fund is based on the forecast number of pupils that will claim, not the number of pupils that are eligible! So hats off to Lewisham Council who are paving the way to enable schools to claim their full entitlement. I cannot comment on whether this approach is legal, you will have to make your own assessment on that, but Lewisham Council have gone ahead on this basis. #academies #FSM #freeschoolmeals #academyfunding
Director of Finance (CFO) at Creative Education Trust, FCA
1yThank you for sharing Pam. I'd be interested to connect with anyone who has information regarding whether academy trusts can legally gain access to the data required to identify eligible pupils.