Free School Meals

Information for Parents / Carers

The Local Authority have confirmed funding for free school meal vouchers for the 2025-2026 financial year.

Under the new arrangements, families will receive two vouchers – one in July 2025 to cover Easter and Whitsun holidays (backdated) and the six-week summer holiday (nine weeks at £10 per week = £90).

A second voucher will be issued in December 2025 to cover the October half term (backdated) and the Christmas and February half-term holidays (four weeks at £10 per week = £40)

The vouchers will be released to parents/carers on Wednesday 17th December 2025 via the E-vouchers system: https://help.evouchers.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360016766617-How-to-login-and-view-vouchers

Free School Meals Vouchers - Going Forward: Going forward, free school meals vouchers issued to families during school holidays may no longer continue into the new 2024/25 academic year and beyond. Further updates will, of course, be provided nearer the time.

Please see the message below from SMBC regarding Free School Meals Vouchers

Funding will be available to support FSM pupils with a food voucher over the Christmas holiday. This will include pupils with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) that schools have identified as having eligibility. The government only announced an extension of the Household Support Grant a few weeks before October half-term, which, unfortunately didn’t leave enough time to make the necessary arrangements.

In recognising how difficult the Christmas period can be for families the Council will instead be providing a £60 voucher (per child) in December which is equivalent in value to separate vouchers for October, Christmas, & February half-term.

Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for children and families Cllr Mohammed Jalal Uddin said: “Sandwell Council is in fact one of the few councils continuing to support families who are eligible for free school meals.

“Our Household Support Funding for the period up to the end of March 2025 has been confirmed as being over £3.4million.

“We will be using this to provide families eligible for free school meals with vouchers in December – offering financial help at what we know is often the most financially challenging period of the year for many households.

For those families who are struggling or in need of extra support during the school holidays, we continue to offer Holiday Activities and Food during the Christmas break. Eligible children can enjoy fun activities and a meal, free of charge. Families have been contacted directly about this offer and more details are here: https://holidayactivities.sandwell.gov.uk/

There is also support available on the Supporting Sandwell website at: www.sandwell.gov.uk/supportingsandwell including financial advice.

Update from Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

'We have been in the fortunate position to be able to provide vouchers to eligible parents whose children receive free school meals when the majority of other councils ended their offer.

We are looking at how we can support families during school holidays and will be in touch in the coming weeks to confirm any arrangements in the future.

For those families who are struggling or in need of extra support during the school holidays, we continue to offer Holiday Activities and Food during the Easter break. Eligible children can enjoy fun activities and a meal, free of charge. Families have been contacted directly about this offer and more details are here:'
https://holidayactivities.sandwell.gov.uk/

To access more information about the FSM Evouchers, including FAQs, please click the link below:

Evouchers FAQs

For help on how to login and access / view your Evouchers, please click the link below:

How to Access Evouchers

If you think that your child may qualify for Free School Meals, please click on the link below to check the criteria and apply:

Apply for Free School Meals