About 1,300 children in Devon are now getting free school meals who were not previously entitled to them.

Devon County Council and Torbay Council have changed the rules so families who are entitled to free school meals automatically get them without having to apply.

The increase in the number of children who are eligible also brings with it extra “pupil premium” funding that can be used to provide additional support for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Cornwall Council agreed to introduce the same scheme from September 2026 and said it believed it could affect about 1,800 children, while Plymouth City Council said it was also looking into the possibility of making the change.

The percentage of children receiving free school meals in the Devon County Council area has risen steadily from 9.6% in 2016/17 to just under 20% by 2023/24.

At the moment, a household must earn less than £7,400 a year to qualify for free school meals.

Devon County Council said it was the first county council in the country to introduce auto-enrolment for pupils whose family income made them entitled.

The council said there were now about 21,065 pupils receiving free school meals, with an increase of about 1,065 due to auto-enrolment.

The leader of Devon County Council, Liberal Democrat Julian Brazil, said the application process for free school meals had been “a barrier” to some families.

He said: “This is one of those initiatives that makes absolute sense – it’s good for pupils and it’s good for schools.”

The changes have also meant that schools in the Devon County Council area will receive an additional £1.5m, with an extra £1,515 per primary pupil and £1,075 per secondary pupil on free school meals.

Moira Marder is chief executive of the Ted Wragg Trust, which has 18 schools across Devon.

She said: “The additional pupil premium funding unlocked by this policy will enable us to offer more targeted interventions and extra support to these students, moving one step closer to breaking the unfair link between disadvantage, opportunity and outcomes.”

According to research carried out by the charity End Child Poverty in conjunction with Loughborough University, 27% of children in the south-west of England were living in poverty in 2023/24.

That figure was highest in the Plymouth Sutton and Devonport area – at 35% of children – and at 32% in Torbay.

Sonia Duggan, who works for the charity Action for Children in Paignton, welcomed more childen getting free school meals but said many families were still struggling to feed themselves.

She said: “The auto-enrolment is great. However, it’s not going to touch the surface for some of our families.

“Our families are living in poverty. Everything has increased – all their bills, fuel costs, their food, everything.

“We have families that are working, that cannot afford to feed their children.”