How will the cost of providing Free School Meals to eligible 3 and 4 year-olds be met?
The Standards Fund allocations have been calculated using deprivation indicators in the same way as the DSG. We believe that this is sufficient to take account of the additional cost of providing Free School Meals to eligible 3 and 4 year-olds and is consistent with the method used for funding this cost through the DSG. No distinction is made between the maintained and PVI sectors. It will be the responsibility of local authorities to manage their allocation, including assessing eligibility for free school meals and allocating sufficient funding for this. The cost of installing facilities to enable settings to offer meals is not intended to be covered by the Standards Fund allocation. However, it is our view that the significant injection of capital funding over 2008-11 will go much of the way to removing this as a barrier.
