South Tyneside Council set to expand Free School Meals as it looks to tackle child poverty
More children in South Tyneside will receive Free School Meals from September 2026.
South Tyneside Council has announced that it is set to expand its Free School Meals provision to as it looks to tackle child poverty.
The local authority was one of the first to bring forward a Child Poverty Strategy, which it launched earlier this year.
In the strategy, Free School Meals was a major theme, and the Council, alongside partners such as the North East Child Poverty Commission and the South Tyneside Poverty Group, have been pressing for policy change nationally.
Cllr Tracey Dixon, Leader of South Tyneside Council, said: “I am delighted that the Government have listened.
“At the Child Poverty Summit we held last year, Free School Meals was a key theme and the focus of a debate led by our Youth Parliament.
“We’ve always said that most of the levers to action real change are in the control of central government, but it is our job to press the case for South Tyneside and it is encouraging to see that the work through our child poverty strategy is starting to make a difference.
“There’s still a lot of work to do and we will keep pushing for policy change to support our residents.”
At the time of writing, around 45% of children in South Tyneside already receive a free school meal and, for everyone else, a Council subsidy covers more than a third of the cost of a school meal.
The announcement made by the Government meals that all children in families that are claiming Universal Credit can access free school meals - beginning in September 2026.
According to the North East Child Poverty Commission, around 50,000 families in the North East and around 3,000 in South Tyneside alone will benefit from this.
South Tyneside Council has already taken a number of measures to reduce the costs of the school day for thousands of parents in the borough.
This includes providing discretionary funding to local schools to help children just above the free school meals threshold, food vouchers for those on Free School Meals during school holidays and support with uniform vouchers.
The local authority has confirmed that this support will continue over the course of the next year.
The Council is also encouraging auto enrolment, signposting families to the wider benefits of uptake of Free School Meals including potential food vouchers, uniform support, access to HAF and additional funding for schools.
This will run alongside a letter distributed through schools encouraging families to contact the school to check eligibility.
Councillor Paul Dean, Lead Member for Voluntary Sector, Partnerships and Equalities at South Tyneside Council, added: “We are delighted that the Government has listened.
“This will make a real difference, along with the other things we’re doing to tackle child poverty.
“This includes providing food vouchers during school holidays, support with the cost of school uniforms, targeted campaigns to increase uptake of entitlements and direct work with schools to 'reduce the cost of the school day.”
For more details on South Tyneside Council’s Child Poverty Strategy, visit: https://southtyneside.gov.uk/article/26503/Child-Poverty-Strategy.