Management Information Sheet

1 Revenue Grant Academic Year 2014-15

The grant is to support schools in delivering the legal requirement to offer free school meals, meeting the school food standards, to all their pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2.

The grant is allocated in two parts:

Main Allocation and Small Schools Allocation

Two payments will be made to schools;

June 2014 - The provisional main allocation for the period September 2014 to March 2015 and the full amount of the small schools allocation.

May-July 2015 - The final main allocation for the period April 2015 to July 2015, plus an adjusting payment for September 2014 to March 2015.

Academies and Free Schools that converted before the 1 April 2014 will receive their payment direct from the Education Funding Agency (EFA)

The grant does not have to be completely spent by schools in the financial year beginning 1 April 2014; it may be carried forward to future years.

Main Allocation

Provisional Main Allocation

A provisional allocation for each school will be announced by the EFA in June 2014, but you can estimate what your school will receive for the Academic year using the schools calculator at the EFA website.

The provisional allocation will be calculated from the January 2014 school census based on;

• The number of pupils on roll in reception, year 1 and year 2.

Minus

• The number of pupil on roll in reception, year 1 and year 2 recorded as known to be eligible for free school meals (FSM)
• Equals the number of eligible pupils
• Multiplied by £2.30 X 190 (days) X 87% (take up)

This means that each school has been allocated £380.19 for each year R, 1 and 2 pupil recorded on the January 2014 census, except those known to be eligible for FSM.

Final Main Allocation

A final allocation for academic year 2014/15 will be calculated in May 2015, from October 2014 and January 2015 school census, using the following information:

• The total number of pupils on roll in reception, year 1 and year 2 who took a meal as recorded on the October 2014 and January 2015 school census, minus
• The total number of pupils on roll in reception, year 1 and year 2 as recorded on the October 2014 and January 2015 school census as known to be eligible for a Free School Meal.

The result will be divided by two to get the average take up figure for each school for the academic year 2014-15.

This figure will be multiplied by £437 (£2.30 X 190days) to arrive at the final allocation for academic year 2014/15 for each school.

Year End Adjustment

At year end schools will need to enter a creditor or a debtor for the adjustment they are expecting to their provisional allocation for September 2014 - March 2015. The adjustment for actual take up can be estimated by using the EFA's school calculator, at the website link above. A reminder will be included in the year end close down notes.

Where a school's final main allocation is less than the payment made in June 2014, the difference will be deducted from the first payment of the UIFSM grant for the 2015 to 2016 academic year.

Small Schools Allocation

In addition to the main allocation, schools with 150 pupils on roll, or less, as recorded on the January 2014 census will receive an allocation as set out in the table below.

Total number of Pupils on the January 2014 census	Unit funding per non-FSM Eligible infant pupil
1-30	£210
31-60	£190
61-90	£160
91-120	£135
121-150	£100

Where a school's allocation is calculated below £3000, the allocation will be uplifted to £3000.

2 Capital Grant

The Local Authority has received capital funding of £1.939m to meet the legal requirements of Universal Infant Free School Meals.

Please see MI Sheet 141/14 for full details.

3 Free School Meal Eligibility Checking - New Forms

Attached to this Management Information sheet are revised application forms for Free School Meals.
For Infant age pupils all parents should be asked to complete the appropriate form stating whether they wish to take up the offer of a school meal by completing parts 1, 2 and 4 of the form.
Where a family receives one of the qualifying benefits they are also asked to complete Part 3 of the form. These applications should be forwarded to Susan Harris, Free School Meals, County Hall in the normal way. Eligibility will be checked and a report will be sent to the school for pupil premium purposes. All forms where Part 3 is not completed should be retained by the school.
A revised application form is also attached for children outside Key Stage 1, as the Department for Education has extended the eligibility criteria to include Universal Credit. Earlier versions of the applications should be replaced with the attached forms.