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CHAPTER 9: FREE SCHOOL MEALS AND PAYMENT SYSTEMS
9.1 This chapter outlines procedures for paying for meals and for claiming free school meals at the time of the baseline research, as well as summarising pupils and teachers' views on free school meals and payment systems. Relevant Hungry for Success recommendations include:
Recommendation 9: Processes maximising anonymity for free meal recipients should be explored as a priority in all schools. Primary schools should review their ticket allocation practices to ensure anonymity for free school meals is maximised and education authorities should adopt early introduction of a school meal application for multiple use cards, in particular in the secondary schools
Recommendation 10: As part of the introduction of card systems, education authorities should ensure there are sufficient validators in easily accessed areas within the school, not only in the dining room, and that they are easy to use
How do pupils pay for their meals?
9.2 We found only a small number of instances where pupils paid catering staff directly with cash (or free school meals tokens) for school meals. Handling of cash was more usually separated from the serving of food. This was done in different ways. For example in primary and specials schools cash was variously:
- handled by the school office on a weekly basis
- exchanged for a token before entering the dining room on a daily basis
- an informal 'slate' system was operated by the cook, whereby payment could be made at the end of a week or next day if money was insufficient on day of purchase
9.3 More often in secondary schools cashless payment involved the use of swipe cards. Usually these were issued to pupils when they began schools, and were topped up by pupils through validation machines situated in dining rooms or elsewhere in the schools. In one or two schools, there were complaints about the lack of machines and the queues at these machines. One reason for introducing the cards was to speed up payment in the dining room. While in general catering staff confirmed this was the case, in at least one school the Head Teacher did not find this had happened in reality.
9.4 Swipe cards were popular among younger pupils, although as pupils grew older their novelty value tended to decrease. As well as the appeal of cards diminishing, pupils often lost the cards, though this was not noted as a problem in all schools. Where pupils did lose cards, replacement cards often had to be paid for, which acted as a disincentive for pupils to replace them. In one school, a cash payment counter was introduced due to the number of pupils losing cards. In other cases, pupils who have lost their cards cited this as a reason for going outside to buy food with cash. In one school, pupils remembered their card details and were able to obtain meals without using the actual cards.
9.5 To improve the popularity of swipe cards and to encourage pupils to look after them and keep using them, some schools currently have or are planning to introduce cards such as 'Young Scot' that provided discounts on travel, and some leisure facilities and high street shops, including fast food chains. However, in one school where the card was being used and discounts were being offered, some pupils still reported this was not enough of an incentive to make them chose to eat in school.
9.6 Pupils using swipe cards also allows for information gathering. For example, it is possible to collect information on the types of food that is sold and in particular on individual pupils' choices. We did not find widespread evidence that this information was being used by individual schools. It had been used by one school, for example, when parents contacted the school to express concern about their child's diet or where there were concerns about bullying or misusing cards. Another school was considering the possibility of using the information to contact parents and discuss pupils lunch choices, especially where they suffered concentration lapses in afternoon classes.
How much do school meals cost?
9.7 Meals prices varied across schools, where some schools have fixed priced meals, or meal deals and others have a combination of meal and individual item prices. Fixed meal prices were usually set to the value of a free school meal and typically ranged from £1.35 - £1.85. Hot and cold fixed meal deals were offered, while the actual items included in the meals varied. Often there was a choice between individual items within the categories of food included in the meal. For example, pupils could choose between soup and a pudding or between yogurt, fruit or a pudding.
9.8 Pupils in different schools had differing views about the value for money of their school meals. Some pupils thought the meals offered good value for money, while others complained that prices were too high. These complaints related to individual items being priced highly, or to the overall amount spent on lunchtime food each day. Pupils in a large secondary school said that the local chip shop offered price promotions on their lunchtime food, which represented better value for money than school meals. In one small secondary school, pupils reported prices had increased significantly recently. The Head Teacher of a primary school in the same local authority area also expressed the view that prices had increased rapidly in the past few years.
9.9 In the questionnaire, secondary pupils in case study schools were asked specifically about whether they considered the cost of school meals in their school to be cheap or expensive (see Figure 9.1). Just over a fifth of pupils (21%) said they did not know. Among the remaining pupils, opinions were fairly mixed, with 44% of pupils saying school meals were either very or quite expensive and 33% saying they were either very or quite cheap. This confirms results of both the qualitative and quantitative research discussed previously in Chapter 4 (What pupils eat).
Figure 9.1: Thinking about how much school meals are at your school, would you say they are… (% secondary pupils)
Base: 1623
Percentages do not all add up to 100 due to rounding
Source: case study school pupils' attitudinal questionnaires - secondary schools
Free school meals
9.10 The School Census showed that the proportion of pupils entitled to free school ranged in the selected primary schools from 40% to less than 5% and in the case study secondary schools from 45% to 5%. In both cases, the average free school meals entitlement across case study schools was close to the average across all primary and all secondary schools. In both special case study schools, free school meals entitlement was relatively high.
9.11 However, not all pupils entitled to free school meals actually claimed them. A Head Teacher in one school suggested this was due to the application process or because parents felt an obligation to provide lunch for their child.
9.12 According to the School Census, most secondary and half of primary schools included in the research operated an anonymised system for free school meals. However, the current research found that this was not always the case in practice. For example, in one primary school identified as having an anonymised system, the current practice differed.
9.13 In primary and secondary schools where swipe cards were not in use, those entitled to free school meals could generally be identified easily. For example, free school meals tickets were issued in class; pupils entitled to free school meals were identified on lists at the front of queue; and payment was made using tokens collected at the school office rather than cash. As a consequence pupils, particularly in primary schools, were often aware of who was entitled to free school meals.
9.14 Where swipe cards were used, principally in secondary schools, those entitled to free school meals could not easily be identified, although other pupils might notice that they did not insert money into the machine to top up their card and on the (not infrequent) occasions when they lost a card, it would become apparent at the till. In one primary school that operated a swipe card system, pupils mentioned that free school meals entitled pupils could be identified by the fact that they had the same amount of money automatically put on their card every day.
9.15 Despite this lack of anonymity it did not appear, through the qualitative research, to be the case that there was much of a stigma surrounding free school meals entitlement. Head teachers and catering staff in schools where receipt of free school meals could be easily identified did not believe this caused problems or that pupils attached any significance to such entitlement. Pupils themselves generally confirmed this view; including those who were in receipt of free school meals. Pupils talked in a very 'matter of fact' way about entitlement simply being based on whether parents worked or not. One or two in this latter group were pleased that entitlement relieved the burden on their parents of paying for school lunches or preparing packed lunches. However, this is not to say that there is not a stigma at all in relation to free school meals, as the presence of a stigma may explain why some parents chose not to take up the entitlement.
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