Free school meals - test of change phase: equality impact assessment

Background

The Scottish Government is committed to eradicating child poverty and the FSM Programme is key to this aim.

The Programme for Government 2024-25 states that the Scottish Government will:

• Work towards further expanding FSMs to those in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment in primary 6 and primary 7, and provide £21.75 million for FSM alternatives in all school holidays for eligible families.

The current FSM Programme has been expanded using a phased approach. Currently, universal FSMs are available during school term-time to over 265,000 children in primaries 1 to 5 and special schools, as well as 81,606 eligible pupils in primary 6 to secondary 6.

£37 million has been allocated to deliver the expansion of the FSM Programme to those in receipt of Scottish Child Payment in primaries 6 and 7 - helping provide healthy and nutritious meals to around 25,000 children.

As part of the 2025/26 budget process, Scottish Ministers announced a new ToC to provide meals to those in receipt of Scottish Child Payment in S1 to S3. A further £3 million is supporting this delivery phase.

The ToC will run from August 2025 to July 2026. It will be carried out in eight local authorities in secondary schools that have capacity to deliver the expansion with support for provision of meals, and represent a variety of geographical areas. These areas will represent urban, semi-urban, rural and islands.

We expect more than 6,000 pupils to benefit from this further extension to the FSM Programme. These pupils are also in low income families and therefore the ToC meets the Scottish Government’s aims to eradicate child poverty and support families with the cost of living.

This extended policy will contribute to the following National Outcomes:

• Education: “We are well educated, skilled and able to contribute to society.”
• Health: “We are healthy and active.”
• Human Rights: “We respect, protect and fulfil human rights and live free from discrimination.”
• Poverty: “We tackle poverty by sharing opportunities, wealth and power more equally.”