Universal Infants Free School Meals (UIFSM)

Legislation  Children & Families Bill places a legal duty on all state funded schools to offer a free school meal to all pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2  This duty comes into force from September 2014

Revenue Funding  Will be at a level of £2.30 for each newly eligible pupil under the UIFSM policy  Funding for existing FSM pupils will continue as before  New indicator on the school census to be introduced in Oct 14 to enable schools to state how many newly eligible infants are taking a meal

Revenue Funding  Initial Allocation will be notified end of June and will provide funding for the first two terms of the academic year  At this stage we believe it will be issued as formula funding via the funding statement either in July or August

Revenue Funding  Initial Funding based on assumptions:  87% of newly eligible pupils will take 190 meals each in the course of a full academic year  Will be revised based on the actual take-up data derived from the average of the Oct 14 & Jan 15 Censuses

Revenue Funding  Funding for third term will be adjusted according to the revised data  Schools with take up above 87% will see funding adjusted upwards and those below will see it adjusted down  Third terms funding to be received in April 15

Revenue Funding  DfE guidance still awaited on  Detailed terms & conditions  Year-end accounting treatment  Allocation methods for 2015 and beyond  Funding for this policy beyond will form part of the next government spending review

Small Schools Transitional Funding  For schools with a total roll up to 150 pupils on Jan 14 census  Will be funded as a lump sum via the funding statement in July  One off funding to support implementation of the UIFSM policy

UIFSM Capital Funding  Initial £1,048,300 allocated to schools with £240,992 earmarked for additional bids  Individual schools to choose to manage the funds themselves or agree with CCS to manage on their behalf  Individual schools who have been successful in bidding for additional capital have been advised separately

Pupil Premium  Basis on which Pupil Premium is calculated will not be effected by UIFSM  Criteria for FSM remains the same and will be collected via the census  Schools need to distinguish between FSM pupils and UIFSM pupils on future censuses to safeguard pupil premium funding

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