Coronavirus: Free school meals scheme branded 'disaster' as 'parents struggle to get vouchers'

Parents are being left in limbo over how to feed their children because the government's free meals voucher scheme has been a "disaster", senior teachers have claimed.

The Department for Education (DfE) is currently providing vouchers during the coronavirus pandemic - worth £15 per child per week - for youngsters who would normally be eligible for free meals.

The DfE initially promised schools that parents would receive codes to obtain vouchers online on the same day as schools applied for them, according to documents seen by Paste BN.

But teaching staff were told last week by the DfE that orders had to be placed "four calendar days before the due date".

One senior teacher told Paste BN she had spent the last two days fielding questions from parents who could not redeem vouchers or had not received codes.

Claire Lotriet, an acting co-headteacher from south London, said the scheme - which is run by the DfE and a company called Edenred - had been a "nightmare".

"When I try to resend codes, I get constant errors," she said.

"I've tried over the last few days and nothing... I feel helpless.

"The Edenred system cannot cope and it is immensely stressful knowing families who need these vouchers are not getting them and yet there's relatively little I can do to resolve it."

Chris Dyson, headteacher of Parklands Primary School in Leeds, which serves one of the most deprived areas of the UK, called the government's free meals voucher system a "disaster".

He said the online system was "very middle class" and it was not accessible for many families with children at his school.

"I've only got 20% of parents on email," Mr Dyson said.

"So I can't even email it out to the most vulnerable. Then you've got to download it and you're hearing horror stories where, still, after three weeks, schools have not got the vouchers.

"These kids are three weeks without any food - the most vulnerable in our society."

Mr Dyson said he had been working with wholesalers, which normally provide food for his school's kitchens, and businesses who would normally donate to his school's Christmas fund, to get food to families in his local area.

"We're putting food directly into bellies - we're getting that much now, I can share it amongst all of Leeds," he added.

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The DfE has claimed that all orders for free meal vouchers up to 19 April have been been fulfilled.

But another senior teacher told Paste BN he had ordered codes on 15 April for parents and none had so far managed to get a voucher.

"[The codes] actually started being delivered yesterday, more than a week after I'd placed the order," Michael Tidd, a headteacher from Sussex, said.

"Just logging on to the website takes an hour - and it's not clear how long it then takes to get the actual voucher delivered."

Edenred defended the running of its scheme, saying claims that it takes an hour or more to log on to the website to get vouchers were "not reflective" of average wait times on the site on Friday 24 April.

"The changes we have made to the scheme are resulting in a scheme which is easier and faster to use," the company said.

"We will make continue to make improvements in the days ahead."

In a statement, the DfE said: "We continue to encourage schools to work with their suppliers to arrange food parcels or collections for families eligible for free school meals.

"Where this is not possible, a national scheme was launched for schools to provide supermarket vouchers.

"As of 24 April, over £22.5m worth of vouchers have been converted into supermarket gift cards by schools and families."