Extract from Opposition day debate on Free School Meals: Summer Holidays - June 16
Wednesday, 17 June 2020 08:44
Sally-Ann Hart (Hastings and Rye) (Con):...We must recognise that
the argument for free school meals to be available during school
holidays is not new. A 2016 survey by the Association of
Teachers and Lecturers found that children from disadvantaged
backgrounds were returning to school after the summer holidays less
than healthy because they had gone without food. To assume, though,
that people who are less well off will not or cannot feed their
children is, I am sure, somewhat...Request free trial
(Hastings and Rye)
(Con):...We must recognise that the argument for free school meals
to be available during school holidays is not new. A 2016 survey by
the Association of Teachers and
Lecturers found that
children from disadvantaged backgrounds were returning to school
after the summer holidays less than healthy because they had gone
without food. To assume, though, that people who are less well off
will not or cannot feed their children is, I am sure, somewhat
insulting to disadvantaged families. In fact, during the
coronavirus, many families have not accessed free school meals or
the voucher scheme, but, as my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield
(), who
has left the Chamber, highlighted, we must not shy away from the
fact that, unfortunately, some parents just do not or cannot
prioritise their children’s needs over their own. We must
turbo-charge our efforts to look at the
underlying causes of the neglect of some children by their parents,
tackling the root cause rather than just allowing the Government to
step in and do the easiest thing—throw money at the
problem...
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