The impacts of Universal Free School Meal schemes in England

This project will investigate the impact of Universal Free School Meal (UFSM) programmes on children’s educational attainment, absences and bodyweight.

The research will build on a previous Nuffield-funded study which found that that the 2014 Universal Infant Free School meals policy (UIFSM) significantly reduces children’s bodyweights in Reception year and reduces absences amongst infants relative to juniors. It also found a positive association between participation in UIFSM and attainment. This new study will investigate the longer-term impacts of UFSM provision on attainment, bodyweight and absences up to age 11, through analysis of earlier and ongoing local authority UFSM programmes. At a cost of around £400 per pupil per year, UFSM policies are sizable investments in children. This research will help to establish if UFSM policies are cost-effective in terms of future health and productivity, educational attainment and school attendance. The researchers will assess cost-to-benefit ratios of different policy options related to programme duration or targeting by age group, school or local authority.

The researchers will use a difference-in-differences approach to identify the causal effects of UFSM, using data from the National Pupil Database and the National Child Measurement Programme. The researchers will measure differences in outcomes within the same school or local authority between different cohorts, only some of which experienced UFSM at a specific age. These changes will then be compared to a matched sample of children in similar schools or local authorities that did not offer UFSM. Additional analyses will evaluate the impacts of exposure to UFSM for different lengths of time, at different ages, for pupils with different characteristics, and for schools with different characteristics. The researchers will also carry out a descriptive comparison of changes in the take-up of free school meals between cohorts. Finally, they will compare the cost of raising attainment or reducing bodyweight through different UFSM with expected savings on future healthcare spending or productivity projections. This analysis will be conducted overall and for subgroups of schools and children with different characteristics, to determine where the greatest cost-benefit ratios are likely to be found.

The research will provide important evidence on the impact of UFSM schemes to inform policy debate on appropriate school meal provision. The findings will be disseminated widely to research, policy and practice audiences, and will be made publicly available in a project report and non-technical briefing on the Nuffield Foundation website.