The School Meals Report research project

Led by ParentPay Group Catering division

Now in its fourth year, the School Meals Report project shares significant insight into parents’ views of school meal provision in the UK. Over 200,000 parents take part in our research each year.

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About the project

The aim of this research is to understand the parental view of the school meal service and offering available to their children. Building on the success of the 2021, 2022, and 2023 surveys, ParentPay Group (led by Cypad and BlueRunner) and LACA have again completed a groundbreaking study with parents on school meal provision in the UK. The survey continues to gather a great response from parents – with approximately 210,000 respondents from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland completing the 2024 survey in April.

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Eating Lunch CY@3x
In partnership with industry associations

Once again this year, we have worked on the report with LACA and Assist FM. As an organisation in its 31st year, LACA has long been recognised as an association representing and supporting school catering organisations and teams across the country, with 80% of school catering services being delivered by its members. Assist FM have also contributed to the report historically and gave their full support for the responses from parents across Scotland for 2023.

Get powerful insights for optimising your school’s meals service

This study helps us to understand what caterers and school leadership teams need to do to ensure their customers and families are happy with the service provided. Comparing the results to previous surveys and other pieces of research will provide an ongoing understanding of the needs of parents/guardians, school leadership and catering teams.

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Register your interest in the 2025 School Meals Reports

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Latest reports

Get this year’s key takeaways.

2024 National School Meals Report

Receive valuable feedback from 206,462 parents in the 2024 School Meals Report.

2024 Regional School Meals Report

Gain regional feedback from parents in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland in the 2024 regional report.

Previous reports

Explore our archive to discover insights and findings from past years.

2023 National School Meals Report

Gain actionable feedback from over 240,000 parents in the 2023 report, including key recommendations for improving the school meal service.

2023 England School Meals Report

2023 Wales School Meals Report

2023 Scottish School Meals Report

2022 National School Meals Report

The second year of the project saw the research reach over 306,000 parents across the UK. For this year, the research was split into a national report, as well as regional reports covering England, Scotland and Wales respectively.

2022 England School Meals Report

2022 Welsh School Meals Report

2022 Scottish School Meals Report

2021 National School Meals Report

In its first year of running the research project, 140,000 parents across the UK responded to the survey. In 2021, the report covered the national results only.

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