Publication type
Report
Authors
Publication date
February 15, 2024
Summary:
Means-tested Free School Meals (FSM) have been available in England since 1944. These are intended to benefit children in terms of their health and ability to learn, and to ease financial pressures on their families. More recently, in some places the offer of a free school lunch has been extended to all children in some year groups. The Universal Infant Free School Meal (UIFSM) scheme was introduced across in England in September 2014, for children in their first three years of primary school, and all primary school children in London are being offered a free meal in the 2023/2 academic year. Before this, several local authorities in London had rolled out their own Universal Free School Meal (UFSM) schemes between 2010 and 2014 for children up to age 11. In this report we evaluate the impact of these local authority UFSM schemes on: 1) Take-up of school meals; 2) Children’s diet-related health, as measured by obesity prevalence and body mass index (BMI) classifications; 3) Children’s educational attainment, as measured by test scores in Reading and Maths at the end of primary school; 4) Children’s rates of absence from school; 5) Patterns of household food expenditure. The report builds on the authors’ previous work funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which showed that the national UIFSM policy reduced obesity rates among children in their first year in primary school, and reduced household food expenditure (Holford and Rabe, 2020, 2022). Investigating the impacts of local authority-run UFSM schemes adds to the evidence by providing results for a wider range of outcomes, for children at older ages, and for children exposed to free meals over a longer time-period.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5526/misoc-2024-002
Subjects
Links
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/explainers/UFSM-reduce-child-obesity.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/explainers/UFSM-reduce-child-obesity.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/projects/impact-of-the-universal-free-school-meal-policy
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/explainers/UFSM-reduce-child-obesity.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/explainers/UFSM-reduce-child-obesity.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/projects/impact-of-the-universal-free-school-meal-policy
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/explainers/Impacts-of-local-authority.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/explainers/UFSM-reduce-child-obesity.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/explainers/UFSM-reduce-child-obesity.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/projects/impact-of-the-universal-free-school-meal-policy
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/explainers/UFSM-reduce-child-obesity.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/Impact-of-the-UFSM-schemes-in-England.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/explainers/UFSM-reduce-child-obesity.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/projects/impact-of-the-universal-free-school-meal-policy
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/misoc/reports/explainers/Impacts-of-local-authority.pdf
- https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/misoc/research/education-and-skills/explainers
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