Free School Meals

Free School Meals – Online portal

During the summer holidays the School Admissions Team has tested and launched the Free School Meal module on the Citizen’s Portal for parents.

https://www.newcastlelea.org/CitizenPortal_LIVE/en

This new way of applying for Free School Meals has advantages for parents as follows:-

• Parents find out the result of their Free School Meal application instantly
• If a parent has applied on the portal and they become eligible later, the portal will tell parents that they have become eligible
• Applicant information only needs input once and younger children can be added to a parents claim as they reach school age (or pre-school for maintained nurseries)
• Parents of children who are new to the city can apply for FSM in the same place they are applying for a school
• The portal fully complies with GDPR requirements and parents can choose to remove their consent via the portal. They are aware of the information we hold and how it is used.

Since the beginning of August 600 applications have been processed through the citizen portal; very few parents have had any problems with the system and feedback has been good.