Free school meals for students in post-16 education

Due to an ‘anomaly’ in legislation free school meals are not available to students over 16 years of age studying in further education colleges and sixth form colleges; free school meals are however available for similarly disadvantaged students in sixth forms in schools, academies, free schools and university technical colleges. This note gives an overview of this issue; it explains how this situation has arisen, gives current debate and refers to the Association of Colleges campaign in this area.