Guidance

Free meals in further education guide

Guidance to help provide free meals to disadvantaged 16 to 18 year old students in further education funded institutions.

Applies to England

Documents

Details

This guide is departmental advice from the Department for Education (DfE).

The guide sets out the funding rules for free meals and forms part of institutions’ DfE funding agreements. The guide is intended to help further education funded institutions understand their obligation to provide free meals to disadvantaged students. Institutions must comply with the rules and be able to show they comply at any audit.

Updates to this page

Published 11 June 2025
Last updated 8 May 2026 href="#full-history">+ show all updates
  1. Added 'Free meals in further education funded institutions guide: academic year 2026 to 2027'.

  2. First published.

Sign up for emails or print this page