INCREASING money allocated for pupils receiving free school meals could have a knock-on impact on the education budget, councillors have been told.
Although the Welsh Government funds universal free school meals for all primary pupils in secondary schools only those from the most hard-up families are entitled to a free dinner.
Torfaen Borough Council allocates £2.60 a day for a secondary school pupil entitled to free school meals, which is taken from its main revenue funding grant from the Welsh Government. It is for each council to decide how much to allocate per pupil but figures gathered informally by council officers has shown this is below the amount allocated by neighbouring authorities and others in South Wales.
Cardiff council makes the largest allocation, at £3.40 per pupil, followed by Newport at £2.95 while Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly each spend £2.80. Powys council spends £2.65 per pupil.
Director of education Andrew Powles told members of the education scrutiny committee the council has agreed to review the figure following representation from two headteachers, but said it had been agreed as part of its school funding formula.
But he warned: “Increasing that to match Cardiff would cost about £300,000 additionally a year but it is a discussion to be had.”
Education officer John Tushingham said: “£300,000 is no small amount and that’s why it is an issue.”
Additional money
He said the council would need to understand where any additional money would come from and it would have an impact on education budgets unless new external funding was available. He also said the cost per pupil figure “couldn’t be looked at in isolation”.
Reform UK councillor for Trevethin Stuart Keyte asked if the council would be able to deliver expanded free school meals, either to all secondary school pupils or for those from households in receipt of Universal Credit, in line with a Welsh Government request.
Providing free school meals to children from families receiving Universal Credit would bring Wales into line with England as presently only those from families with an annual household income below £7,400, are entitled, though there are exceptions for children receiving meals before the current threshold was introduced.
Mr Tushingham said it isn’t a proposal to either offer universal free school meals, or increase eligibility, but was a request from the Welsh Government to carry out a “scoping exercise” which is expected to be completed by June.
Catering service
Torfaen council provides a catering service to two of its six secondary schools and the pupil referral unit, while one secondary provides its own in-house service and three use external catering providers.
Prices charged by the council catering service range from 35 pence for toast with spread and £1.20 for a bacon roll to £1.80 for pasta with sauce and meat and £2.40 for a plated salad though prices can vary from site to site.
During 2025/26 the council catering service, which operates in all primary schools, provided 716,293 universal free school meals and 300,459 free school meals to secondary pupils which works out at more than one million meals per year and doesn’t include collaboration with the Play service in providing meals during school holiday periods.
The 2025/26 figure was around 50,000 less than the previous year which the council said is 10 daily meals less per school, impacted by a roll drop of around 200 pupils between the two financial years as well as six less trading days in 2025/26.
Take-up of universal free school meals in Torfaen primaries was 80.83 per cent, in 2025/26, which was above the all-Wales figure of 69 per cent reported in March. Take up of free meals in secondaries for 2025/26 in Torfaen was 80.28 per cent.