Last updated: 10/09/2024
Extend access to universal healthy free school meals
Introduce universal free healthy school meals for all primary school children during term time
- Moderate impact on obesity
A percentage estimate of how much the policy would reduce national obesity rates
- Relative reduction in obesity prevalence: 2%
- Although this policy has limited impact for reducing national obesity rates, it is beneficial for increasing access to nutritious food for child health
- High evidence quality
A rating of the strength of evidence, accounting for both reliability and validity of the evidence
- Reliability and validity rating: 4/5
- Very high cost to governments
Cost to UK and devolved governments over 5 years
- Costs to governments over 5 years: £13bn
- Benefit to governments per year: £0.3bn
What is the policy?
This policy would extend free school meals programmes to all primary school children. Currently, state-maintained schools and academies have been required by the Education Act 1996 to provide free school meals to disadvantaged pupils. Eligibility is based on criteria related to whether children or their parents are in receipt of specific public benefits such as Universal Credit or Income Support. In 2014, provision of free school meals was extended to children in reception, year 1 and year 2. This policy would extend the existing access to all primary school children.
Recent context
Food consumed in school is an important part of children’s diets, making up 17% of meals and snacks eaten by primary school children and evidence suggests that school lunches are healthier than packed lunches. School lunches in the UK are covered by regulatory standards which mandate that they meet specific nutritional requirements. The specific requirements differ between the devolved nations; however, both England and Wales require that primary school lunches do not exceed 530 calories per day.
Universal approaches to free school meals have already been adopted for the youngest pupils in England. The universal infant free school meals programme, introduced in 2014, obliges schools to provide free lunches to all students in reception, year 1 and year 2.
In Wales, all primary school aged children are eligible for free school meals. The roll out of this policy began in September 2023.
In Scotland, universal free school meals are provided to all children up to and including P5 (equivalent of reception to year 4 in England and Wales). As part of its commitment in the 2023/24 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government has committed to working with local authorities (LAs) to expand this to include all primary school aged children by the end of the parliamentary term in 2026 and offering it initially to those in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment.
Case studies
Universal free school meals, London
In London, the Mayor has funded universal free school meals for all state primary students in the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years. The programme has cost £275 million over two years, and reaches approximately 287,000 children each day. An evaluation of this programme will be published in 2025. Four individual London LAs (Newham, Islington, Southwark, and Tower Hamlets) have already had universal free school meals policies from as early as 2010.
Universal free school meals, Scandinavia
Sweden and Finland have been providing free school meals to all children in primary and secondary education since the 1940s, and their neighbour Estonia followed suit in 2002. Sweden’s free school meal policy was first introduced between 1946 and 1969. Its initial purpose was to improve the nutritional quality of children’s diets. Whilst children were consuming enough calories at the time, there was concern within government that they were not eating a sufficiently well balanced diet. Although initially funded via central government, responsibility today lies with LAs who are legally obliged to fund school meals, and menus are expected to adhere to specific standards set out in the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations.
Academics at the University of Stockholm and Lund have recently published research on the long-term impacts of this policy. Children who received free school meals were, on average, taller than expected by approximately 0.8cm for boys and 0.6cm for girls after being exposed to the policy for nine years. Overall health was significantly better at age 18, although longer-term differences in health outcomes such as mortality and morbidity were not observed.
Considerations for implementation
Pupil premium funding, a grant aimed at improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children, is currently allocated to schools based on the number of students receiving free school meals. If free school meals were made universal, adjustments to this funding process would be necessary.
Expanding the eligibility for free school meals should consider the impact on school kitchen operations and dining hall space, and is particularly contingent on the uptake of school meals within each school.
Estimating the population impact
We estimated that this policy would reduce the population obesity rates by approximately 2% (by reducing the prevalence of childhood UK obesity rates by approximately 17%)
Estimating the per-person impact
Holford and Rabe (2022) evaluated the effects of a universal free school meal policy on the prevalence of obesity in children in reception and year 6. Results showed prevalence of obesity reduced by 5.6% in year 6 children and by 9.3% in reception aged children. The paper doesn’t report any evidence on the amount of reduction in BMI or body weight of children.
Holford and Rabe (2022) report data from two age groups: 4–5 year olds (reception) and 10–11 year olds (year 6).
To avoid underestimating the impact of free school meals on obesity levels, we made assumptions about the reduction in prevalence in children between year 1 and year 5 using the evidence reported in the study.
Estimating the population reach
We assumed this policy would have no effect on adults. We applied the effects on all primary school aged children, aged 4–11 years living with excess weight (≥ 85th percentile).
Changes in the prevalence of people living with obesity
| Adults (England and Wales) | Children (England and Wales) | Adults (Scotland) | Children (Scotland) |
| – | 17% | – | In progress |
Cost and benefits
Cost over 5 years
We estimated that this policy would cost the governments approximately £13 billion over five years
We commissioned HealthLumen to estimate the cost of the policy to both industry and governments over a five-year period. View the full report.
Table 2 below shows a breakdown of costs. The direct costs to the governments are estimated at approximately £13 billion over five years. The costs to the food industry are not applicable here. Please see cost calculations appendix for more details.
| Group affected | Cost | Horizon | Detail |
| Costs | |||
| Government | £13bn | Annual (5 years) | Cost of free school meals @ £2.65 per meal multiplied by number of children in the eligible age group |
Total annual benefit
We estimated that this policy would have an annual benefit of approximately £0.3 billion
For policies that solely target children, we used data published in Ochoa-Moreno et al. (2024) which estimated the projected impact of child BMI trends on adult health measures, and subsequent lifelong medical and social costs. Economic modelling estimates the annual costs associated with childhood obesity is £8.7 billion per year for children living with obesity. This includes cost of productivity losses and QALYs.
Impact on disease incidence
We commissioned HealthLumen to report disease incidence avoided if the policy were implemented. These estimates do not represent the total health benefits. The specific diseases selected are those where there is good evidence that living with obesity is associated with the development of the disease.
Based on our analysis and analysis conducted by HealthLumen, there is no evidence that this policy would impact disease incidence avoided after five years.
Behind the averages: impact on inequalities
This policy is targeted to have an impact on children, suggesting that if the priority is to reduce childhood obesity, this is a favourable policy. Universal free school meals remove the stigma associated with free school meals. Evidence suggests that when school meals are free for all pupils, then those children who were previously eligible for means-tested free school meals are more likely to take up the offer.
This policy has less focus on individual responsibility and therefore it is unlikely to exacerbate the prevalence of weight stigma.
Rating the strength of evidence
We asked experts working in the fields of obesity, food, and health research to rate the strength of the evidence base for each policy, taking into account both reliability (size and consistency) and validity (quality and content) of the evidence. Policies were rated on a Likert scale of 1–5 (none, limited, medium, strong, and very strong evidence base). The Blueprint Expert Advisory Group rated this policy as having a Strong evidence base.
Ban on all HFSS price promotions in food retail businesses
Ban all price promotions (e.g. was/now prices, introductory prices, temporary price reductions) of HFSS foods in the retail sector excluding small and micro businesses