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SIMS the MIS of choice supporting teachers, senior leaders and wider staff with the tools to efficiently drive improvement in their schools.
Following the announcement by Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister of universal free school meals (UFSM) for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 pupils, partners may like to consider the impact of these changes on their products.
We anticipate the need for a new meal type to be added to SIMS Dinner Money for UFSM simply with a zero charge. This can be done using the existing application; the only discussion point within SIMS is whether to put one in for customers, whilst this seems simple enough it does run the risk of conflicting with an existing entry created by the school for the same code.
No changes are required to support UFSM.
SIMS Users are advised that a student’s eligibility for UFSM should not be confused with or recorded as an entitlement to Free School Meals. Students taking UFSM may have FSM eligibility and if this is the case then FSM eligibility should be recorded in SIMS independently of information about UFSM.
ESS SIMS remains concerned about whether parents will take the trouble to apply for free school meals when their children are eligible for UFSM. The application is intrusive into family situations and commits the parent to keeping the local authority updated when circumstances change. Whilst parents with older children have a financial incentive to apply for FSM, there is a significant likelihood that parents that will not directly benefit from FSM will not bother to apply because there is no direct benefit to them.
School funding may be affected when parents do not make a claim for FSM (not UFSM) because a FSM entitlement is also an entitlement for the school to receive pupil premium payments. The lack of a claim from a parent would mean that the school would likely lose £600 per year
The Partner team does not believe that the changes will have any significant impact on partners as a result of the announcement in so far as SIMS data is concerned. It is however likely to impact upon Cashless Caterers, On Line Payment Providers and perhaps Alternative Financial Products.
It is however beyond our remit to advise as to how these products might be affected, however it is prudent to ask the question and in so doing assist our partners.
UFSM Announcement: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24132416
Pupil Premium: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19649306