Government announces permanent extension of Free School Meals to families with No Recourse to Public Funds

The NRPF Action Group campaigners celebrate the great news!

In a major win for the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) Action Group’s campaign, the Department for Education has announced that they will extend access to Free School Meals to all families affected by NRPF. Thank you to all the supporters and allies who joined our call to make sure that free school meals stayed available to all children who need them, no matter their parents' immigration status.

From our day to day work with people affected by the NRPF policy, which prevents people from accessing the welfare safety net, even if they’re living in poverty, we’re used to hearing regularly about the hardship they faced being unable to access to Free School Meals. When the Government took the welcome step of changing the rules so that some of these children could get Free School Meals, it was an important move - thousands of children were guaranteed one hot, freshly cooked meal per day, at a time when many families were losing their jobs and incomes.

But the uncertainty of whether this would continue weighed heavy. That’s why, working with the NRPF Action Group, we launched a campaign calling on Secretary of State for Education Nadhim Zahawi to make this temporary extension permanent.

So we were thrilled today to read the announcement that not only is the extension being made permanent, it is also being extended to ALL families affected by NRPF. This is a huge (and long overdue!) step forward.

A huge thanks to organisations such as Project 17, The Unity Project, Hackney Migrant Centre, The Children’s Society, Citizens UK and Food Foundation, along with many other allies, for their tireless work campaigning for this cause for years!

Anna, one of the campaigners from our NRPF Action Group, said:

“We are tremendously happy to hear today’s good news. This promising development gives us hope. It is so important to safeguard children. This is a step further on our quest: we are closer to ensuring that one of the most basic rights of children, to be well nourished, are being met. We are not resting on our laurels, there are more battles to fight. We are glad to see the government is listening to us and our voices are being heard. We are looking forward to achieving more of our aims.”

Our Policy and Public Affairs Manager, Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, had this to say:

“We warmly welcome the Department for Education’s decision, announced today, to permanently extend access to Free School Meals for all children affected by the No Recourse to Public Funds policy.

This ensures that children living in poverty, who were previously denied access to the welfare safety net by their family’s immigration status, get guaranteed access to one hot, freshly cooked and nutritionally balanced meal a day. At a time when the cost of living is rising rapidly, this decision could not come at a better time for many of the families we work with.

We would urge the Department to urgently clarify whether children in families with insecure or irregular immigration status, who are amongst the most excluded in our society, will also benefit from this measure.”

This wouldn’t have happened without so many people coming together to show their support for free school meals for all children that need them. So thank you all!

There's still more to do - we don't yet know what this means for children with insecure immigration status. Sign up to our emails to find out what’s next, and to stay up to date with our future work and campaigns.