School meals can save you time and provide peace of mind that your child is enjoying a healthy, fresh and nutritious meal at lunchtime. Some of the benefits are:
- Meals are packed full of goodness, with at least two of your child’s five-a-day.
- They help to develop your children’s social skills and table manners.
- Evidence shows that regular consumption of school dinners can improve educational attainment.
- They save you time, with no shopping for sandwiches or making packed lunches.
- You get peace of mind knowing your child is getting a healthy, nutritious cooked meal.
If your child's eligible, you could save up to £400 a year with free school meals. You'll also be able to access the Healthy Holidays programme during some school holidays. For all Healthy Holiday enquiries please email HAF@barnsley.gov.uk.
Can I apply for free school meals?
You qualify for free school meals if you receive:
- Income Support
- income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Child Tax Credit with an annual income of less than £16,190, provided you aren't receiving Working Tax Credit
- the 'guaranteed' element of the State Pension Credit
- Working Tax Credit run-on (paid for four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)
- Universal Credit with an annual net earned income threshold of less than £7400
- support under part six of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
Your child may also be entitled to a free school meal because of a benefit that they receive in their own right.
How to apply
If you live in Barnsley
If you live in Barnsley and your child goes to school in Barnsley fill in our online form.
If you live in Barnsley, but your child goes to school in another area such as Rotherham, Doncaster, Sheffield, Leeds, Wakefield, Bradford or Kirklees, you should apply to the relevant council for your child’s school.
If you live outside Barnsley
If you live in Rotherham, Doncaster, Sheffield, Leeds, Kirklees or Wakefield, but your child goes to school in Barnsley, fill in our online form above.
If your child is a Barnsley College student
If your child attends Barnsley College, please see the financial support webpage on Barnsley College's website for help with free school meals.
What happens next
We aim to make a decision within seven days of you applying. We'll write to you to let you know our decision. We also let the school know if your child is entitled to a free school meal.
More information
What changes do I need to tell you about?
You must tell us straight away if:
- Your child leaves school or moves to another address.
- Your child moves school.
- You move to another address.
School meals are free for children in reception, year 1 and year 2. Why do I still need to apply for a free school meal?
All children in reception, year 1 and year 2 get free school meals. However, if you receive one of the benefits listed above you should still apply for a free school meal as you may also get help with:
- The cost of residential school trips (speak to your school about this).
- Travel costs to school. See our school travel page for more details.
- Music lessons at school. (The lessons must be provided by Barnsley Music Service to qualify.)
- Free school milk.
For each child registered for free school meals, the school will receive an annual pupil premium of:
-
£1445 for primary schools
-
£1035 for senior schools
This is additional money for your child’s school.
Automatic enrolment for free school meals
Based on the information we hold about Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support, we have found that several households may meet the criteria for free school meals, even though we may not have received an application.
To increase the Pupil Premium funding for all schools in Barnsley we've started using existing data that we already hold to automatically award free school meals. The funding is very important to schools and is £1,455 per child in primary school and £1,035 per child in senior school.
If you don't want us to use your Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support information for free school meal awards, please contact us online and let us know.
Why am I still entitled to free school meals if my circumstances change?
From April 2018 the criteria used to determine which pupils are eligible for free school meals was updated to reflect the introduction of Universal Credit and the phasing out of other income-based benefits.
To ensure families are not disadvantaged during the rollout, protection arrangements have been put in place. This protection will apply until your child either leaves primary school or secondary school.
If you'd like more details about this please call us on 01226 787787 and select option 3.
Data protection
We’ll use the information from your free school meals application form, and any supporting evidence you send us, to process your claim. We won't give information about you to anyone else, or use information about you for other purposes, unless the law allows us to.
Please get in touch if you’d like to know what information we have about you or how we use it.