Transitional Protection of Free School Meals (Wales)

The following communication was received from the Welsh Government on Tuesday the 19the of December and I am quoting the English language version of this communication verbatim. Subsequent newsfeed items will describe any actions we need to take regarding this confirmation of the beginning of the end of transitional protect of FSM in Wales.

Dear All

You will be aware that the Transitional Protection order [external link] is due to end on 31 December 2023. We can confirm that the order will not be extended beyond this date.

It is important to note that whilst the policy is ending, the protections are not, and as such, there should be no immediate loss of protections on 1 January 2024.

Any child or young person who becomes eligible for free school meals up to and including 31 December 2023 should continue to have their free school meals protected until the end of their current school phase (i.e. primary education or secondary education). This applies even if their circumstances change, and they no longer meet the eligibility criteria. 

Children of families that become newly eligible for free school meals from 1 January 2024 or continue to meet the eligibility criteria for free school meals as they move into secondary school, will no longer be protected if their circumstances change. 

The delayed migration of legacy benefit households with children across to Universal Credit past the end date of our current order, does place a small group of year 6 pupils at risk of losing their entitlement to free school meals.  We are making separate funding available, in addition to the monies currently in the Local Government Settlement (RSG) for Transitional Protected pupils, to support this group of pupils and will engage with local authority delivery partners in the new year on this matter.

PLASC and EOTAS Data Collections

If a Year 4 learner is marked as <FSMeligilbe>=1 (for true) or <FSMtransitionalProtection>=1 on 31 December 2023, they should be marked as being transitionally protected for PLASC and EOTAS and will continue to be transitionally protected for their free school meals until they finish their phase of education, being the primary phase of education in this example. Therefore, they would still be expected to be marked as <FSMtransitionalProtection>=1 in all future PLASC and EOTAS data collections until this protection ends, i.e. until they finish primary phase of education.

To clarify:

• Transitional Protection: Anyone who has become eligible under the means tested criteria following an application being made and eligibility checked via the appropriate systems and processes, and as a result anyone recorded as <FSMeligilbe>=1 at any point between 1 April 2019 and 31 December 2023 (inclusive) for any amount of time will also have automatically become transitionally protected under the policy and must also be recorded as <FSMtransitionalProtection>=1 
• Primary: Anyone who is transitionally protected on 31 December 2023 (or have been at any point since 1 April 2019) will remain transitionally protected until they end their primary phase of education. Anyone who becomes newly <FSMeligilbe>=1 from 1 January 2024 onwards, i.e. eligible under the means tested criteria, is not transitionally protected due to the policy ending on 31 December 2023 and should therefore be recorded as <FSMtransitionalProtection>=0 (for false)
• Secondary: Anyone who is transitionally protected on 31 December 2023 (or have been at any point since 1 April 2019) will remain transitionally protected until they end their secondary phase of education and in effect leave schooling (which is to include sixth form). Anyone who becomes newly <FSMeligilbe>=1 from 1 January 2024 onwards, i.e. eligible under the means tested criteria, is not transitionally protected due to the policy ending on 31 December 2023 and should therefore be recorded as <FSMtransitionalProtection>=0

Please refer any queries you may have to IMS@gov.wales [external link].