FIS & Free School Meals

Warwickshire Family Information Service (FIS)

Warwickshire County Council has a dedicated Family Information Service, for families with children and young people which provides a wide range of information regarding:

• Childcare
• Money and benefits
• Housing
• SEND
• Health and wellbeing.

The FIS team also offer a 1-hour discovery webinar for parents, carers, and professionals. The webinar includes the role of FIS, takes you through a guided tour of the FIS and SEND Local Offer webpages and includes information on the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme. To view future webinar dates and to book a place please visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/warwickshire-county-council-31960567793.  

Free School Meals:

From September 2026 there will be some changes to the eligibility criteria for Free School Meals.  Details are below and further information can be found at Apply for free school meals: Apply for free school meals (FSM) - Warwickshire County Council

What’s changing in September 2026?

Changes to eligibility

There will now be two categories of free school meals depending on your financial circumstances: 

• Targeted free school meals for those getting Universal Credit with annual household earnings of £7,400 or less, or another qualifying benefit 

• Expanded free school meals for anyone getting Universal credit whose annual earnings are above £7,400. 

Households in both categories will benefit from the financial savings of getting free school meals. 

Households who fall into the targeted category will get access to the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme, providing a range of fun and free activities and healthy meals for children over the school holidays. Your child’s school could also receive extra funding to support them. 

Changes to protected status and the new yearly checking process

You may have also previously heard of something called 'Protected Status' or 'Transitional Protections'. This has been in place since 1 April 2018 and meant that children becoming eligible for free meals under the benefits-based criteria kept their eligibility status, even if their household circumstances changed after they first became eligible. These will now be ending at the end of the 2025/26 school year, ready for the new criteria to start in September 2026, so you may have children that have been eligible for several years, who won't be eligible anymore. 

For the start of the new 2026/27 school year, once a child becomes eligible for free school meals, they will then remain eligible for that whole school year, regardless of any change of circumstances. Warwickshire County Council will then store your data and will re-check your child's eligibility in the summer holidays every year, to check if they remain eligible, and notify you of the outcome. Please contact us if you no longer wish for us to carry out this process. 

Next steps for families

If your child is currently eligible for free school meals, you do not need to do anything. We will re-check the eligibility of all currently eligible children and will contact you over the summer holidays to let you know if your child will still be eligible for free school meals for the 2026/27 school year (and which category they fall into), or whether we need more information from you to check this. Alternatively, your child's school may contact you about this if they are completing this process on their own. 

If your child has never received free school meals before, and they are attending a school that works with us on free school meals (the list of schools this includes will be published on our website nearer to the time) then you can apply via our website at the beginning of August 2026. If your child is attending a school that is not on our list, then they process their own free school meals applications and you must contact them directly to apply. 

Eligibility criteria

Your child could be eligible for free school meals if you get any of the following: 

• Universal Credit 
• support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance 
• guarantee element of Pension Credit. 

Some families who have no recourse to public funds are also eligible for free school meals, please view our free school meals webpages for more information.   

If your child is in Reception, Year 1 or Year 2, they will automatically be entitled to universal infant free school meals. However, if you do meet the benefits-related free school meals eligibility criteria, then it is advised you apply in case you could receive the additional benefits described above.  

If you have any questions or need support with applying for free school meals, please contact the Family Information Service by emailing freemeals@warwickshire.gov.uk or calling 0800 408 1558 (freephone). 

If you'd like to contact the FIS team, please call 0800 408 1558 (freephone) or email fis@warwickshire.gov.uk and a member of the team will be able to assist with your query. 

Full details can be found online at Children and families – Warwickshire County Council

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