"Understanding the vote on Free School Meals and why we have decided to it through a different mechanism:Here is a scenario to consider: Two friends, Steve and John.Steve previously was on a low income and their child qualified for FSM. However years have passed, they have done well at work and now earn £50,000 a year. That income has not been affected by COVID. His children still qualify for FSM, because having previously been on a low income that funding follows them throughout their time at school, because we've ensured that this is the case throughout the rollout of universal credit.John is self-employed and previously earned £25,000 a year. Their children do not qualify for FSM. They have significant fixed costs like a mortgage and car repayments, but due to COVID they have been working limited hours and are now earning less than half of what they did before, meaning they are struggling to pay the bills etc.If we just rolled out the Free School Meals proposals, Steve gets help despite earning a good income and not having experienced hardship due to COVID, whilst John who is really struggling on drastically reduced income gets nothing. It might sound good on the surface, but in truth it's not effective!Through our approach, giving funding to local Councils to assess and administer the right support directly, we can ensure that John’s family who are really struggling get not just help with food, but other help and guidance to access personalised support too.This is why Free School Meals is not a good mechanism to use. This is why Government has instead given money to local Councils, charities and community groups to offer help directly rather than a blanket national approach.This is why NOBODY voted against helping kids last week, we just voted to do it in a way that will reach more of those in need!!"