Guidance

Free breakfast clubs: guidance for schools and trusts

Guidance on setting up and running free breakfast clubs.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 20 November 2025
• Last updated: 15 September 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 15 September 2026

     Updated 'Free breakfast clubs: guidance for schools and trusts' for the 2026 to 2027 academic year, including links to current guidance and information on partnerships, offers and school food standards. The guidance was previously titled 'Free breakfast clubs: guidance for schools and trusts for phase 1 of the national rollout from April 2026'. Removed 'Free breakfast clubs: guidance for schools on the early adopter programme, April 2025 to March 2026'.

  2. 15 June 2026

     Added 'Free breakfast clubs data return summer term academic year 2025 to 2026: guidance for completing the digital form'.

  3. 22 May 2026

     Updated 'Free breakfast clubs: guidance for schools and trusts for phase 1 of the national rollout from April 2026'. The updates clarify what schools need to do in the ‘When to register with Ofsted’ section, and what local authorities need to do in ‘Local authority support'.

  4. 14 April 2026

     Updated 'Free breakfast clubs: guidance for schools and trusts for phase 1 of the national rollout from April 2026' for April 2026.

  5. 20 November 2025

     First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Free breakfast clubs: guidance for schools and trusts

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Free breakfast clubs data return, summer term, 2025 to 2026 academic year: guidance on completing the digital form

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Details

This guidance explains the role of schools and trusts in setting up and running free breakfast clubs.

‘Free breakfast clubs: guidance for schools and trusts’ is for schools who are delivering or preparing to deliver a free breakfast club.

The guidance outlines what you:

• are required to do
• are expected to do
• need to consider when setting up or expanding existing provision

We have also published a list of schools on the programme.