Easily identifying government funding entitlement

Background

Our Lady Immaculate Primary School is at the heart of the community it serves. Based in Everton, not far from Liverpool city centre, 377 pupils aged 2-11 attend the Catholic Voluntary Aided school. The original home of ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, the area is ranked among the most deprived in the country.

But despite the prevalence of deprivation, the school was missing out on vital pupil premium funds because parents were often unaware that they qualified for free school meals or did not know how to apply.

The school decided to use Online Free School Meals (OFSM) and SIMS to make it easier to identify pupils who would be eligible for free school meals and drive-up applications.

Marion Chute, the school business manager explains, “The area is one of the most deprived in Europe, with extremely high deprivation, so you would assume our pupil premium percentage would be equally high. In fact, it was around 55%.”

“We needed to redress the balance and focus on the types of funding that should be available to us. Eligibility for free school meals is a common indicator for pupil premium entitlement, so we wanted to find a solution that could monitor ongoing pupil eligibility and make it easier for parents to engage in the process.”

Simplifying the process

The school spotted that with the Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) programme automatically providing all children up to Year 2 with a free meal every day, many families would not apply for means-tested free school meal provision until their child reached Year 3.

This meant parents were missing out on other sources of support they were entitled to, linked to household income. It also prevented the school from accessing the associated pupil premium funding, which could be used to buy extra resources and teaching time for the most disadvantaged pupils.

As Marion explains, “Many parents don’t necessarily understand how a free school meal award is a gateway benefit and is used as a measure of other funding, so don’t always see the need to register. If parents are also struggling with family issues or other priorities, registering their child for free school meals can sometimes drop down their to-do list.

“It felt a little too intrusive to approach parents directly and ask about free school meal entitlement, so we wanted to find a way to identify eligible pupils more easily and sensitively.”

The school first refined its application process to include a form which requested any new parents to include their National Insurance and MAS card numbers as part of the process, so pupils’ eligibility can be automatically monitored within OFSM.

OFSM then uses live data from the Department of Work and Pensions and the Home Office to detect in real-time if a pupil has become eligible for free school meals and pupil premium. The system is continually monitoring eligibility for every child whilst they remain at the school.

If a pupil becomes eligible, an email alert is triggered notifying both the parents and the school. This removes the need for reapplications and saves staff time and effort.

“It doesn’t interfere with my daily schedule as I don’t have to check the information manually. It’s totally confidential and if parents are happy, we can simply apply for free school meals on their behalf.”

Maximising school income opportunities

OFSM enables schools to check missed eligibility for free school meals and pupil premium funding for their existing cohort too.

“Discovering one eligible pupil we previously weren’t aware of means OFSM pays for itself,” says Marion. “Multiply that by the number of pupils who might be entitled prior to Year 3 and it’s easy to see the value the tool brings to the table.”

Since using the OFSM tool, the school has increased the take up of free school meals and the amount of pupil premium funding it receives. This has allowed greater access to early years and mainstream pupil premium, as well as a bigger slice of the local authority budget allocation, which is calculated by combining free school meal numbers and deprivation indices.

A trigger to spark additional support

Marion believes OFSM has become an invaluable way of helping the school to support parents in other ways too. 

“Families can sometimes be reluctant to volunteer that they need support. If we are already talking to them having received an automated alert about free school meals, it’s easier to ask them if everything else is OK. I’ve found it can open the floodgates. 

“It’s been the trigger for us to put additional support measures in place like a Family Support Worker, provide stationary packs and uniform. It reinforces why it’s crucial for the school to ensure every child that is eligible for free school meals is registered.”