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Guidance

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.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Education
Published:
11 June 2025
Last updated:
16 September 2026
Show all updates

  1. Settings can record free meal eligibility through the autumn 2026 census until 2 November 2026. The usual deadline is 1 October.

  2. Added 'Model student communication for further education: free meal changes – 2026 to 2027 academic year'.

  3. Updated 'Free meals in further education funded institutions guide: academic year 2026 to 2027' to reflect the uplifted per meal rate.

  4. Added 'Free meals in further education funded institutions guide: academic year 2026 to 2027'.

  5. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Free meals in further education funded institutions guide: 2026 to 2027 academic year

HTML

Model student communication for further education: free meal changes – 2026 to 2027 academic year

MS Word Document, 39.3 KB

Free meals in further education funded institutions guide: 2025 to 2026 academic year

HTML

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.

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