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The Scottish Government has finally secured a budget deal, avoiding the prospect of a failed government and an unplanned election, and as an education journalist, I was of course very interested to read that it includes an expansion of free school meals (FSM) provision.

This has been a major issue for the SNP, which had previously pledged to make FSM universally available for primary schools pupils – and then changed their mind. It looks bad, and it’s hardly the only broken SNP education promise.

As part of the new budget agreement, funding has been found to extend eligibility for FSM to students in S1, S2 and S3 whose families receive the Scottish Child Payment (SCP) benefit – although it will only apply in eight as-yet-unidentified council areas.

The extension will be achieved by making receipt of the Scottish Child Payment a qualifying benefit for FSM. According to the information most readily available on the Scottish Government’s website, eligibility criteria for FSM and the SCP are already extremely similar, so you might think that pretty much everyone who is eligible for the latter will already be receiving – or at least be entitled to receive – free meals for their kids in school.

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