Parents struggling to make ends meet during the cost of living crisis have been told their children can have free school meals without facing any social stigma.

North Yorkshire County Council’s director of children’s services, Stuart Carlton, said the authority was talking to both parents and schools as part of a drive to improve the 78% take-up from those entitled to free school meals.

It comes amid concerns that increasingly large numbers of those eligible will not take up the support.

A meeting of the authority’s executive heard concerns were mounting over the rate of take-up. It comes as the number of those eligible for the meals is set to significantly increase in the coming months as inflation and soaring energy bills leave family budgets increasingly stretched.

Ripon Ure Bank and Spa division Liberal Democrat councillor Barbara Brodigan questioned what the authority was doing to find out the reasons behind more than one in five of eligible children’s parents not accepting free school meals.

She also pressed the council’s leadership about what was being done to encourage take-up and what support was being offered to those just outside the criteria to qualify.

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She said the council was also offering other support, such as its Local Assistance Fund, to those facing financial difficulty and had also simplified the process for applying for free school meals.

Mr Carlton added while the take-up of free school meals had remained at about 20% below the number available for some years, there was a concern “with the numbers going up so significantly with the parents who have not had to access this before”.

He said: