School bosses say this week will be the real test on whether a new free meals policy can work.

The new school term, and implementation of the government’s multi-million pound project, begins this week.

Dorset schools say they are ready to go – despite only having six months to get ready.

But concerns have been raised that plans have been rushed through without enough funding and the real test will be this first week. Under the plans, every child in Reception, Year One and Year Two in state-funded schools will receive a free school lunch.

The government allocated a pot of £883,430 for Dorset County Council to buy equipment for schools, including ovens, food servers and fridges. But the money does not cover staffing costs. A spokeswoman for Dorset County Council said it had received ‘enough’ money to fund the programme with no shortfall, adding that the situation had been closely monitored all the way through.

She said: “As far as we know the schools will be ready on time.

“We were given the money and there was no shortfall.

“We had enough money to meet our needs at this point. Whether it will be true in future years I don’t know, but for this year the money is sufficient.

“The schools to this point as far as we know are ready to go.”

She added: “The test will be the first week back. We will be on tenterhooks waiting to see if it works properly.”

Around 11,000 school meals a day will be provided by new food contractor Chartwells, which won the agreement for the next four years.

Council bosses said the company’s kitchen will be Dorset-based, using Dorset ingredients for Dorset schools. Toni Coombs, Dorset County Council’s cabinet member for education, said she was ‘very pleased’ with the way it had come together, but added that the challenge to ensure everyone was ready on time should not be underestimated.

They had nine months’ notice that the policy would happen and six months’ notice for the funding. Cllr Coombs said: “It’s been quite a challenge to get every school up to speed in time for September, both with the introduction of free school meals and with the new catering contract.”

Cllr Coombs said although the new contract will provide ‘locally sourced and locally produced’ meals, the market in Dorset had been ‘too immature’ to award the tender to a Dorset company.

The short time scale for implementation had made it ‘really difficult’.

Cllr Coombs paid tribute to all the officers and schools who had worked so hard to deliver the new programme.

She said: “I wouldn’t underestimate the challenge it has been to pull it off.”