I have received a number of emails from constituents who have enquired about the Government’s policy of free school meals and specifically, as to whether the Government will be ending its own policy of introducing free school meals to children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes.
I can reassure constituents that there are no plans of which I am aware of to make changes to these universal free school meals. I was in the House of Commons on Wednesday 28 October 2015 when the Prime Minister responded to a question about continuing free school meals with the following:
“I am immensely proud that it was a Government I led that introduced that policy. In 13 years of a Labour Government, did they ever do that? I am proud of what we have done, and we will be keeping it.”
By way of further background, every child in the first three years of school is eligible for a free school meal. Over £1 billion has been provided by the Government to meet the costs of the meals over the next two years and £150 million of capital has been made available to schools and local authorities to help them build new kitchens or increase dining capacity where necessary. A further £22.5 million has been provided specifically to help smaller schools provide free school meals and a dedicated support service has also been set up to offer advice and help.
After visiting a number of primary schools in the constituency, one of the issues arising from the policy of free school meals has been an understandable unwillingness by parents to apply for their child to qualify for a free school meal by means-testing rather than via universal entitlement. As a result, schools are losing out on additional funding which is provided to a school for every child who qualifies for free school meal entitlement by qualification. I am keen to support schools in raising awareness to parents as to the need to register for free school meal entitlement regardless of the universal entitlement.