What assessment has the Minister made of the impact that universal free school meals has on pupil development grant funding?
The introduction of universal primary free school meals has had no impact on Pupil Development Grant (PDG) funding to date.
PDG and School Essentials Grant funding are allocated based on the number of learners eligible for free school meals (eFSM) and looked after children (LAC). This data is taken from the preceding year’s Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) data for eFSM and from the Children Looked After Census for PDG-LAC. This means that funding allocations for 2022-23 were informed by PLASC 2021 and allocations for 2023-24 will be informed by PLASC 2022. The census dates for both of these collections were before the introduction of universal primary free school meals and no impact has been identified or is anticipated.
In rolling out the universal offer my officials have worked with a range of partners to ensure we can continue to identify those children and families that would traditionally have been eligible for a free school meal through income or benefits-related criteria. As such it is our aim that the eFSM identifier, and associated data collected through PLASC, will be preserved going forward and can continue to be used to inform PDG grant funding allocations. We will keep this area under review as rollout of the universal offer progresses.
The universal provision of free school meals in primary schools is being delivered in collaboration with Plaid Cymru as part of the Co-operation Agreement.