Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 7 March 2018.
Nick, you're absolutely right: one of the biggest challenges that we have in Welsh education is to ensure that equity within our system and that includes closing the attainment gap for those pupils who are qualifying for free school meals against that of their peers. This year, Welsh Government will invest over £91 million in the pupil development grant. We are always challenging both regional consortia and individual schools to adopt best evidence-based practice of how that resource can be best used to assist those children who are on free school meals.
We are aware that there are some families that fall above the criteria for free school meals, and given the constraints of public finance at the moment, it would be wrong of me to suggest that we were able to increase the number of children. At the moment, free school meals represents, as far as I'm concerned, the best proxy that we currently have for need.