Management Information Sheet

Following the release of MI Sheet 217/23 , the following information is to provide a reminder to order your January - March vouchers.

The government has not indicated that the Household Support Fund will continue past April 2024 or advised on funding FSM vouchers via this route. If this changes in the Government Spring Statement in March, we will of course let you know if that affects any continuation of this scheme.

Therefore, we need to ensure that all January-March vouchers have been raised before 31 March as after this date you will no longer be able to raise outstanding/missed vouchers.

NCC is not linking the food vouchers to the school holidays but is issuing them monthly to help families with the cost of living. Parents/carers may choose to save vouchers rather than spend at the time of issue, so they have more funds available during the school holidays if they wish to, within the constraints of the three-month expiry date of the vouchers. Note: If vouchers expire, they cannot be reissued.

If your organisation feels there is a need to raise vouchers, other than for the purpose described above, you will need to contact the Free School Meal Finance Team to gain authorisation and explain the purpose for the use. If we agree, then the organisation will be required to provide us with an alternative userid and the organisation will be billed for the vouchers claimed. To cover the administration time, we will apply a £20 fee per invoice to cover the costs.

This is also a reminder that those children eligible for means tested free school meals attending a Norfolk School can claim through the Norfolk EdenRed portal, regardless of their home county residence. Please also take account of those pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium Plus. This also includes children in early years who receive EY Pupil Premium, those in post-sixteen education in receipt of bursary funding and those Elective Home Educated children that the council is aware of that would be eligible to means-tested FSM should they attend school.

Vouchers can only be issued for the current active claim period, in this case HSF4 April 2023-March 2024. Backdated claims for previous schemes must not be ordered. The schedule for placing the HSF4 FSM voucher orders are as follows:

Schools may place their orders monthly or consolidate them. Depending on which option you choose, please use the correct order reference as shown in the columns above. The order reference has now become a mandatory field to complete so please use the correct details.

It is important that if you choose the consolidated order option you enter the correct 'go live' dates on your CSV file before uploading it into the EdenRed portal so that the vouchers do not become available to parents/ carers too early.

Please refer to your Edenred user guide for instructions

Any pupils newly eligible to FSM may join the schedule at the point they become entitled.

Newly appointed staff

If you are a newly appointed Headteacher or have new admin staff and are unsure about using the EdenRed portal, please e-mail fsmf@norfolk.gov.uk as soon as possible to arrange for your login to be set up.

Queries

Any other queries in relation to voucher orders should be directed to the Free School Meals Finance Team at fsmf@norfolk.gov.uk. NB: please do not contact EdenRed directly. Please continue to encourage eligible families to register for free school meals as this will enable them to qualify for these vouchers as well as the other support available.

Sharing

You may wish to share this link on your own Facebook pages to promote the scheme to your parents and carers: www.norfolk.gov.uk/education-and-learning/schools/school-meals-and-milk. Please note that the free school meal vouchers will only be available to those who are eligible and have registered.