Free School Meals
Following on from the work we did on School Essentials Grant, which nearly 20% of local authorities are using, we worked with local authorities and Welsh Government to co-design content that would make Free School Meals content more accessible and easier to understand.
Free School Meals provides children who need it with a free meal a day in school or help to pay it.
Even with the rollout of Universal Primary Free School Meals, parents or guardians eligible for Free School Meals are still asked to apply for Free School Meals, as a requirement to receive other support.
The information available to explain this is confusing for users and Welsh speakers found the information in Welsh difficult to understand.
Impact
We engaged and involved members of Welsh Government, local authorities and users through workshops, consultations, and testing and spent time with colleagues across the public and not-for-profit sector in Wales, to explore why people might not claim benefits or access support when they needed it.
From this piece of work, we produced a Free School Meals content toolkit for local authorities.
Hear from our partners
“As a local authority, our collaboration with CDPS on projects like the School Essentials Grant and Free School Meals has helped us to work towards one of our core objectives of making essential services accessible and user-friendly.
CDPS's commitment to user-centric design has led to collaborative content creation and reduced duplication across Welsh local authorities. Through workshops and consultations, they engaged stakeholders from Welsh Government, local authorities, and service users, fostering creativity and inclusivity.
This inclusive approach provided invaluable insights, ensuring relevant, accessible content. Tangible outputs include co-designed content and effective bilingual methodologies.
Pooling resources meant that content could be updated more efficiently, benefiting users and staff alike. Internally, stakeholders embraced user-centric design, leading to streamlined processes, increased satisfaction, and morale.
We welcome CDPS's collaborative content design approach and encourage other local authorities to utilise their toolkits and expertise. We're grateful for this partnership and look forward to continued collaboration.
By maintaining a focus on continuous improvement and innovation, we're confident that we can continue to use the learnings from this process to enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of more of our services.”
Next steps
The team have now completed research to feed into our next phase of the project to support the cost of living.
We are looking to work more intensely with one local authority to demonstrate the impact of creating content in this way to provide better outcomes for citizens.
This work has also gained us a seat on the steering group for the one benefits system for Wales.
Read more
Supporting local authorities with content toolkits
Producing bilingual content through trio writing
What role is the translator’s role in content design?
Giving users more consistent services during the cost of living crisis
How it meets our objectives
CDPS’s objectives:
Objective 1: Supporting the leadership and culture amongst public service leaders to drive good digital policy making and support digital transformation.
Objective 2: Support others to ensure that people can access digital public services by helping them create services that are designed around user needs.
Objective 5: Continuing to promote shared use of the technologies and create and embed common and shared standards in digital, data and technology.
The Five Ways of Working – Well-being of Future Generations Act
- Long-term
- Integration
- Involvement
- Collaboration
- Prevention
7 well-being goals – Well-being of Future Generations Act
- A prosperous Wales
- A healthier Wales
- A more equal Wales
- A Wales of more cohesive communities
- A Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language
- A globally responsible Wales