School Meals Uptake Data Collection Official Statistics Information and Procedures
Data Collection
Information on numbers of pupils taking school meals is collected
annually as part of the School Meals Uptake data collection. This
exercise is an annual snapshot for all grant aided schools in Northern
Ireland, and the reference point for data is usually the Friday of the
first full working-week in October. This is the same date for the main
School Census (school enrolments) data collection [Note 1].
Information is gathered in relation to the number of children taking
school meals either paid or free; those taking traditional meals or cash
cafeteria; and those making other lunch arrangements.
The information gathered, combined with that in the main School
Census, also allows the comparison of uptake of free school meals by
those with entitlement.
The Education Authority (formerly Education and Library Boards
(ELBs)) is responsible for the day to day operation of the school meals
service in all grant-aided schools, with the exception of voluntary
grammar schools and grant-maintained integrated schools, where the
responsibility lies with the Trustees/Boards of Governors. Prior to the
2012/13 data collection catering managers in the former Education and
Library Boards collected data in relation to schools in the controlled
and maintained sectors and provided a collated return for their area to
the Department; the Department collected information directly from each
Voluntary Grammar School and Grant-Maintained Integrated School.
For the 2012/13 exercise the data collection methodology was changed.
The Department collected the information directly from each grant-aided
school.
The first statistical bulletin on School Meals in Northern Ireland
was produced in relation to 2010/11 data. Prior to this data was
collected, collated and made available to policy branches within the
Department of Education and to other users across the education service,
most notably the former Education and Library Boards (ELBs).
The following data is collected:
Type of meal provision
Number of pupils enrolled (for validation with data from main school
Census)
Number of pupils present on the reference date
Number of pupils present on the reference date but not availing of a
school midday break [Note 2]
Number of pupils taking traditional meal – paying
Number of pupils taking traditional meal – free
Number of pupils taking cash cafeteria meal – paying
Number of pupils taking cash cafeteria meal – free
Number of pupils making other lunch arrangements
Number of adults taking school meal – paying
Number of adults taking school meal – free – kitchen staff
Number of adults taking school meal – free – midday supervisors
Note 1: For 2024/25 the reference date for the School Meals Uptake
data collection was 11 October 2024.
Note 2: Collection of this data item began in 2012/13 School Meals
Uptake data collection
Main Legislation
The following statutory provisions provide for the processing of data
by the Department.
Education and Libraries (NI) Order 2003 Article 37 provides that ELBs
and schools shall make such reports and returns and give such
information to the Department as the Department may reasonably require
for the purposes of its functions under any statutory provision.
The Department is responsible for formulating and developing policy
and the associated financial arrangements in relation to school meals.
The school meals service itself is provided in line with the Approved
Arrangements for the Provision of Milk, Meals and Related Facilities
made under Articles 58 and 59 of the Education and Libraries (NI) Order
1986 drawn up by the Department of Education (DE).
DE
website (opens in new window;
https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/publications/milk-and-mealsarrangements-education-authority-voluntary-grammar-and-grant-maintained)
The Department is registered with the Information Commissioner as a
data controller under the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018 -
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and processing carried out by
the Department is compliant with the GDPR.
Resources
The process is currently encompassed within the workload of 1 Deputy
Principal Statistician with 1 Assistant Statistician. This is the
minimum required to produce the dataset to its current standard and in
the current timeframe.
Users and uses of the Statistics Release and data
Data collected are used by policy teams within the Department of
Education and by other users across the education service. The data are
also used to inform responses to Assembly questions.
Response Burden
As part of the 2024/25 data collection all schools were asked to
indicate how long it took them to make their return. The average time
taken by schools to make a return in 2024/25 was almost 24 minutes. In
monetary terms, this translated to an average of £8.06. The results from
each school varied considerably and reasons for this could be such
factors as the size or type of each school or the rank of the member of
staff completing the return. There were 9 schools excluded from this
calculation as they did not make a return.
The average time taken and associated average cost is similar to the
figure reported for 2022/23, which was 26 minutes and £7.62. Note that
from 2018/19 onwards the response burden information has been collected
as part of the main data collection so does not include the small amount
of time involved if a school was re-contacted during validation
work.
Data validation
From 2012/13, data collection has been carried out by the Department
directly from all grant aided schools. In previous years the Department
collected information from Voluntary Grammar and Grant Maintained
Integrated schools only, while the former Education and Library Boards
collected data from all other grant aided schools. The following
description of data validation relates to 2012/13 and subsequent data
collections only.
Data from each school is subjected to a set of validation checks,
including basic arithmetic checks, comparison with previous years return
and with latest school enrolment and free school meal entitlement
figures.
Any changes made to the data as a result of the data validation
process are communicated and agreed with the school.
Confidentiality
The School Meals data collection exercise adheres to the
Confidentiality principle set out in the Code of Practice for
Statistics. No information on private individuals is released to the
public. Sensitive data items or individual level data are not collected
as part of this process and are therefore not held by DE Statistics and
Research Team.
Publication Details
The Statistical Bulletin on School Meals Uptake is an Official
Statistics publication usually published in April on the Department’s
website and on the UK National Statistics Publication Hub. The
Statistical Bulletin is pre‐announced on the Statistical Publication
Schedule on the DE website in accordance with the UK Statistics
Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics.
In June 2025 the following individuals were granted 24-hour
pre-release access to the Statistical Bulletin:
Permanent Secretary, Department of Education
Deputy Secretaries, Department of Education
Chief Inspector, Education and Training Inspectorate
Head of Qualifications, 14-19 Strategy, Statistics and Research,
Department of Education
Head of Transport and Food in Schools Directorate, Department of
Education
Head of Food in Schools Team, Department of Education
Deputy Head of Food in Schools Team, Department of Education
Head of Communications, Department of Education
Concurrent with the Statistical Bulletin, data on School Meals uptake
are made available online in Microsoft Excel and Open Document
format.
