Universal Primary Free School Meals (UPFSM) has been rolled out in London this term.
This scheme extends universal free school meals for infants introduced nationally in 2014/15 to pupils in Years 3 to 6.
Some boroughs (Newham, Islington, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Westminster) already had their own local UPFSM policies in place, Newham’s dating back as far as 2008/09.
We previously set out some thoughts about how the impact of UPFSM on absence and attainment might be estimated. As we set out in that piece there might be good arguments for UPFSM even if there were no impact.
But in this article, we’re going to look at what happened to absence in three of the London boroughs when they introduced UPFSM.
