Agenda item

Actions Jan21 – Ac1, Ac2 and Ac4 were either completed or in hand.

Regarding Jan21 – Ac3 concerning schools missing out on funding for free school meals, Ian Pearson reported that he had discussed this matter with the Department for Education (DfE). The DfE had changed the census date from January 2021 to October 2020. A number of children had become eligible for free school meals between October and January and would continue to do so between January and 1^st April 2021. As a result of changing the date of the census schools would lose out on funding for these additional children.

The DfE had responded to the issue and had reported they were looking to bring the census dates in line with each other. Secondly they acknowledged that communication had been poor regarding the change. The DfE had however confirmed that the change would not be reversed going forward.