Guidance

Universal infant free school meals (UIFSM): conditions of grant 2016 to 2017

Updated 4 July 2017

This guidance was withdrawn on 23 August 2019

This content has been withdrawn as it is out of date. Please visit the universal infant: free school meals funding allocations for 2017 to 2018.

Applies to England

1. Introduction

We will pay the universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) grant 2016 to 2017 under Section 14 of the Education Act 2002. Under section 16 of that act, the Secretary of State lays down the following terms and conditions on which we give assistance in relation to the UIFSM grant payable to schools and local authorities (LAs) for the financial year beginning 1 April 2016.

2. Funding rates and allocations

Each meal taken by an eligible pupil attracts £2.30. An allocation assumes that pupils will take 190 school meals over an academic year, providing £437 per eligible pupil, as counted in section 2.2 below.

2.1 Provisional allocation

For the academic year 2016 to 2017, we will base a provisional allocation to schools on the final allocation for academic year 2015 to 2016. We will count dual registered pupils at the setting at which they took the meal on the census day, even if it is their subsidiary setting.

2.2 Final allocation

We calculate a final allocation for academic year 2016 to 2017 in June 2017 using the number of pupils recorded as taking a meal in year 1 and year 2 in the October 2016 and January 2017 school censuses. We then subtract those pupils known to be eligible for FSM in the same censuses who are taking a meal. This figure is then divided by 2 to give the average number of eligible UIFSM pupils in years 1 and 2.

The number of reception pupils used will be the greater of either:

• the number of pupils recorded as taking a meal in the October 2016 and January 2017 school censuses, minus those pupils taking a meal known to be eligible for FSM in the same censuses, divided by 2. This gives the average number of eligible UIFSM pupils in reception for academic year 2016 to 2017; or

• the number of pupils recorded as taking a meal in January 2017 school censuses, minus those pupils taking a meal known to be eligible for FSM in the same census

We will count dual registered pupils where they took their meal on the census days, even if it is their subsidiary setting.

Where a school does not record pupils in year groups, we will use those aged 4, 5 or 6 on the relevant school censuses to calculate the allocations. We include pupils on the alternative provision census placed in independent schools in the provisional and final allocations to local authorities.

3. Allocations to schools

EFA pays the UIFSM grant directly to academies and free schools open on or before 1 April 2016. LAs must allocate the amounts set out in the attached schedule of allocations to each maintained school and any that convert to academy status after 1 April 2016. They cannot hold the grant centrally. A school may agree to use their UIFSM grant allocation to contribute to central LA provision, but LAs must allocate the grant to each school to enable them to make that decision.

We allocate the grant to schools federated, or to be federated, under the provisions of section 24 of the Education Act 2002, during the financial year beginning 1 April 2016 as if they were not federated.

In the case of a school which closes before 1 September 2016, the LA should not allocate grant to the school. In the case of a school which closes between 1 September 2016 and 31 August 2017, the LA will allocate the grant for the proportion of that period that the school is open.

A school which opens between 1 September 2016 and 31 August 2017 and receives all the pupils from two, or more, schools which have closed, will receive a grant equal to the total which would be payable to the schools had they remained open. It will be proportionate to the period of the 1 September 2016 to 31 March 2017 for which the school is open.

Where a school has pupils transferred from a closing school during the period 1 September 2016 to 31 August 2017, the LA should allocate the grant that would have been paid to the closing school, had it remained open, to the school receiving those pupils. The school should agree the amount allocated.

The grant is payable irrespective of the existence of any deficit relating to the expenditure of the school’s budget share. UIFSM grant is not part of schools’ budget shares and is not part of the individual schools budget. It is not included in the minimum funding guarantee calculations.

4. Terms on which UIFSM grant is allocated to schools

The grant supports schools in delivering the legal requirement to offer free school meals, meeting the school food standards, to all their reception, year 1 and year 2 pupils. Subject to meeting this legal duty, schools may spend the grant for the purposes of the school; that is to say for the educational benefit of pupils registered at that school, or for the benefit of pupils registered at other schools. They may also spend it on community facilities, for example services whose provision furthers any charitable purpose for the benefit of pupils at the school or their families, or people who live or work in the school’s locality.

Schools do not have to spend the entire grant in the financial year beginning 1 April 2016; they may carry forward some or all the grant.

5. Alternative provision pupils

We will allocate UIFSM grant to LAs for each pupil recorded as aged 4, 5 and 6 on the January 2016 census who is not recorded as eligible for a free school meal and where the LA placed the pupil in an independent school.

The LA should spend the amount allocated for such pupils by the end of the academic year 2016 to 2017. They can only spend it on providing a free school meal to pupils not recorded as eligible for a free school meal and aged 4, 5 and 6.

6. Payment arrangements

The Secretary of State will pay the grant to schools and LAs as follows:

Month	Proportion of grant
July 2016	7/12ths of each school’s provisional main allocation. Schools that were academies on 1 April 2016 will receive their UIFSM grant direct from EFA in July 2016.
July 2017	The final main allocation for each maintained school as at 1 April 2017 minus the amount of the main allocation paid in July 2016. Any school that converts to academy status after 1 April 2016, and by 1 April 2017, will receive the rest of its main allocation direct from EFA in July 2017.

Non-converter academies and free schools, which open after 1 April 2016, and by 31 August 2017, will receive their grant direct from EFA.

Where a school’s final main allocation is less than the provisional payment made in June 2016, we will deduct the difference from grant payments for the 2016 to 2017 academic year.

7. Certification

LAs must certify that they have passed on the correct amount of funding to schools or, where they have spent funding centrally, that they have spent it in line with the conditions of grant. We will issue details of this process alongside the certification arrangement for other grants paid to LAs.

8. Variation

The Secretary of State may vary the basis for the allocation from those set out above, if the school or LA requests it.

9. Overpayments

Any overpayment of grant must be repaid to the Secretary of State.

10. Further information

The Secretary of State and the Comptroller and Auditor General may inspect the books, records and other documents that relate the recipient’s accounts. Under Section 6 of the National Audit Act 1983, the Comptroller and Auditor General may examine whether the authority or school spent the premium in an efficient and cost-effective way.

The recipient should provide any information the Secretary of State requires in order determine whether the authority or school has complied with the conditions in this document.

11. Other conditions

The Secretary of State may require the repayment of the whole or any part of the grant if the authority or school fails to follow the conditions in this document.