Newcastle auto-enrols extra pupils free of charge college meals | EUROtoday

More youngsters have entry to free college lunches following a metropolis’s push to succeed in struggling households.

Newcastle City Council introduced final December that each one eligible youngsters within the metropolis could be robotically enrolled free of charge meals as a substitute of oldsters having to enroll.

It follows comparable strikes in different north-east England council areas, together with in throughout County Durham the place a pilot scheme final 12 months noticed an additional 2,500 pupils enrolled.

Newcastle’s push has resulted in a extra modest 153 additional youngsters being accredited free of charge college meals, however the council was instructed it has resulted in metropolis colleges receiving an additional £195,250 per 12 months in pupil premium funding.

Last month, Durham County Council introduced its pilot scheme had been made everlasting and all eligible recipients could be contacted in the summertime concerning the subsequent tutorial 12 months.

About 40% of youngsters in Newcastle are presently eligible free of charge meals, in contrast with a mean 24.6% throughout England, the Local Democracy Reporting Service stated.

But it’s estimated that about one in 10 eligible pupils in England are usually not registered.

That lack of take-up has been blamed on quite a lot of components together with the paperwork and paperwork of getting to use, obstacles offered by language or literacy points and emotions of stigma or embarrassment.

A Newcastle City Council report said: “For some children, their school meal will be the only hot meal they get that day, maybe even their only meal.

“For households of major college aged youngsters their free college meals can save them as a lot as £450 a 12 months – that is virtually £40 a month – with the figures even greater for these in secondary college.”

Announcing the results of auto-enrolment, the council claimed the relatively low increase compared with areas like Durham was due to the authority already having a “strong” system.