A contractor without experience of dealing with schools was deployed to distribute vouchers which were delayed while families and headteachers struggled to access support and help, either by phone or email, the NAO found.
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In response to the health crisis in March, the government announced a national free school meals voucher scheme for children unable to access their free meals entitlement due to school closures.
Existing government employee benefits and staff incentives contractor Edenred was contracted to deliver the scheme in March.
However, “in the first few weeks after the launch, schools reported that it was difficult and time-consuming to register for the scheme and they faced problems logging onto Edenred's website, with staff having to do this late at night to avoid long waiting times”, according to the NAO’s investigation into the free school meals voucher scheme.
The number of calls from schools and parents to Edenred’s helpline peaked at 3,940 on 14 April and the number of emails peaked at 8,878 on 29 April, a month into the lockdown, the investigation showed.
“Schools and parents said they could not get prompt support from Edenred, either by telephone or email,” according to the NAO.
Its report into the scheme adds that the DfE “recognised that the choice of supplier, speed of implementation and uncertainty about likely take up of the scheme created risks”.
The DfE also had “limited evidence of Edenred’s capacity to deliver the scheme to this scale and the required pace”.
The total value of Edenred’s contract by the end of August was £425m but the NAO found that the DfE “does not know whether Edenred made a profit from running the scheme”.
Despite the scheme’s early problems the NAO acknowledges it did get better after the employee benefits firm upgraded its IT systems in April and improved communication with schools and families.
While in April it took an average of five days to process orders, the time fell to just hours by July. The average waiting times to access Edenred’s website dropped from 42 minutes for schools and around 12 minutes for parents in late April to “virtually no wait at all” by July.
"Problems at the start of the scheme led to a frustrating experience for many schools and families, but DfE and Edenred worked hard to get on top of these issues,” said NAO head Gareth Davies.
"Performance steadily improved as the scheme progressed."
In October Conservative MPs voted against providing food for vulnerable families during school holidays. However, last month Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a £170m package for councils to provide free school meals over the Christmas holiday and other holidays until March 2021.
The government has also pledged to invest £220m in a holiday activity and food programme to run over Easter and summer next year.
The government’s U-turn follows a campaign spearheaded by charities and Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford to fund out of term time meals for disadvantaged families.
Children and Families Minister Vicky Ford said: “We have taken substantial action to make sure children do not go hungry throughout the pandemic, including by expanding eligibility for free school meals to more children than any other in decades.
“The NAO has recognised the swift action we took so that eligible children could access this important provision while schools were partially closed.”
