Free meals in further education guide
Guidance to help provide free meals to disadvantaged 16 to 18 year old students in further education funded institutions.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
The guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) sets out the funding rules for free meals and forms part of institutions’ DfE funding agreements.
It is intended to help further education funded institutions understand their obligation to provide free meals to disadvantaged students. Institutions must comply with the rules and be able to show they comply at any audit.
Alongside the guidance, we have provided a model communication for further education settings to tell students about free meal changes for the 2026 to 2027 academic year.
Updates to this page
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Added 'Model student communication for further education: free meal changes – 2026 to 2027 academic year'.
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Updated 'Free meals in further education funded institutions guide: academic year 2026 to 2027' to reflect the uplifted per meal rate.
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Added 'Free meals in further education funded institutions guide: academic year 2026 to 2027'.
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First published.