FOI - Free School Meals advertising costs [Oct 2023]

Your request

1. A list of the outlets where Free School Meals advertising has been placed (across all forms of media, for example, a list of radio stations, newspapers, etc).
2. An estimate of the number of posters printed for the campaign. 
3. An estimate of the number of these posters placed on the Transport for London (TfL) network.  
4. The cost of this advertising campaign so far (from 1 January 2023 up to 16 October 2023), an estimate will do. 
5. The date when this advertising campaign will end. 
6. The total budget for the whole advertising scheme. 
7. The budgeted spend remaining up until the end of the campaign from today (16 October 2023) 
8. Copies of internal City Hall meeting documents where the campaign was discussed and principles and budgets agreed upon. 

Our response

Up to 287,000 state primary school children in London are now benefitting from free school meals following the Mayor's £135m emergency funding.

The Free School meals public information campaign ensures that as many parents as possible know about the offer and benefit from the scheme.

It also directs London parents with primary school age children to important online information about the Government’s pupil premium on top of the free school meals funding.

As a result of the Mayor’s intervention, in one borough alone the schools will likely receive an extra £1.2m in additional pupil premium money each year for the next six years.

The website also offers important guidance to schools and boroughs, as well as information on what and how meals are provided.

Please see our answers to each question, in turn, below:
 
Q1: A list of the outlets where this advertising has been placed.

In order to raise awareness of the city-wide Free School Meals offer, advertising placements included posters placed across out-of-home sites such as billboards and standalone units, as well as social media channels including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. These directed parents to vital information, including the pupil premium form guidance.

We also distributed a leaflet on food poverty support which raised awareness of Free School Meals, the need to continue applying for pupil premium funding and the Free Holiday Meals support programme for food access during school holidays. These were delivered to those on lower incomes through door drops, libraries, community centres and other organisations who requested them as a wider food poverty support communication. 

Q2 and 3: An estimate of the number of posters printed for the campaign and the number of these placed on the TfL network. 

The number of posters printed for the entire campaign is 3,037 and of these, 1,227 were for the TfL network.

Q4: The cost of this advertising campaign so far (from 1 January 2023 up to 16 October 2023), an estimate will do.

The GLA has spent £101,853.57 on the Free School Meals public information campaign which directed parents to crucial information including guidance on filling in the pupil premium form.

Q5: The date when this advertising campaign will end. 

The campaign is ongoing. The GLA is now assessing its impact, and what communication might be needed in the future based on this.

Q6: The total budget for the whole advertising scheme.

The marketing budget for this period is £114,837.48.

Q7: The budgeted spend remaining up until the end of the campaign from today (16 October 2023). 

The remaining budget is £12,983.91.

Q8: Copies of internal City Hall meeting documents where the campaign was discussed and principles and budgets agreed upon. 

Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested in part 8 of your request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. 

Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit.  This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described and equates to 18 hours of work.

Based on the estimated time it would take to collate this information, it would significantly exceed the limit to provide a full response to your request.

We have therefore refused this part of your request under the cost limit provisions of section 12 of the Act and this email constitutes a refusal notice under section 17(1) of the Act.

To bring the cost of responding to your request to within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing the scope of your request so that we can more easily provide the information you are seeking. For example, by providing a more defined subject matter. 

You can read about the principles and budget in the Mayoral Decision.

If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting reference MGLA171023-8569.