College students in Surrey to receive free lunchtime meals

Under the national free school meals initiative, deprived 16-18 year olds who stay on at school are eligible for free food, but their peers who choose to attend further education or sixth form colleges are not.

Surrey County Council is now guaranteeing that all teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds who switch to college at 16 will continue to be eligible for free meals.

The authority estimates that up to 400 students will benefit from the scheme, which will cost between £86,000 and £100,000.

Surrey Council made the change at the instigation of further education college principals in the county. “They said it would make a difference in terms of equality and education and we looked at the problem and changed our budgets in order to accommodate this investment,” said Garath Symonds, assistant director for young people at the local authority.

“Many young people want to take more vocational courses and our scheme means money worries about food won’t be part of career choices,” added the council’s lead member for community safety, Kay Hammond.

The scheme was backed by Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders. ?

“Surrey Council is to be applauded for taking this step, especially in the face of drastic local authority budget cuts,” he said. “We hope other councils will do the same. This kind of support will be even more important as the participation age for education and training rises to 18.”

The Association of Colleges is running a campaign called No Free Lunch? which calls on the government to extend eligibility for free meals to students at college. The association estimates that 100,000 students do not receive a free lunch because their post-16 study is at college, not school.

The Surrey County Council initiative is part of a drive to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training that has also seen the local authority offer cash incentives for businesses to take on apprentices.