A new report published by the Education Policy Institute,
funded by the KPMG Foundation, investigates food poverty
in the early years. The research interrogates the effectiveness
of national policies already in place, as well exploring what can
be learnt from local place-based initiatives and from what other
countries are doing.
The report recommends that the government's upcoming Child
Poverty Strategy should have a focus on food poverty experienced
by children under five.
The report finds that:
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Food poverty rates are higher for families with
children under five, compared to families with older
children. The Food Foundation's latest estimate for
children of different ages shows that almost a quarter (24%) of
households with children under four years were experiencing
food poverty in January 2024 – compared to 19% of households
with older children.
-
Food poverty is particularly damaging in the early
years. The first five years of a child's life are a
significant period of development and are also important for
outcomes in later life. Food poverty experienced by under-fives
is associated with worse physical health – including obesity
and tooth decay – as well as worse mental health and
behavioural outcomes. Food poverty is detrimental to education
- it is associated with worse cognitive development, maths and
vocabulary skills.
-
Food poverty is a problem of income poverty.
The cost of living has increased steeply over the last few
years, affecting food prices in particular, which has impacted
low-income households more. Real wages have stagnated and
changes to social security benefits have seen the levels of
benefit payments decline. Universal Credit payments are not
adequate to afford essentials including healthy food, and the
Two Child Limit and benefit cap have reduced incomes for
families with children.
-
The Healthy Start Scheme does not do enough to support
children experiencing food poverty. Evidence shows
this scheme has the potential to make a positive difference in
young children's access to healthy food, but the payment
amounts have not kept pace with inflation which undermines this
goal. The restrictive criteria also potentially excludes many
children experiencing food poverty.
-
There is unequal access to free meals in early years
settings. Currently only children who attend
maintained nurseries and school-based nurseries are eligible
for free meals if they meet the income and benefits-based
eligibility criteria and the child attends before and after
lunch. The majority of children attend other types of early
years settings which are not required to provide free meals for
low-income children. Even in the settings where free meals
should be available, there is a lack of awareness of the
policy, and the restrictions can make it inaccessible in
practice.
Policy Recommendations
- The Government is due to publish a child poverty strategy in
Spring 2025 which should include a focus on food poverty
experienced by families with children under five.
Abolishing the Two Child Limit and the benefit cap as well as
introducing an Essentials Guarantee, as advocated for by the
Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Trussell, would ensure that
families on social security benefits have sufficient income to
meet all basic needs.
- The government should consider increasing the value
of the Healthy Start Scheme and review it after every
six months to ensure it keeps pace with inflation. They should
also expand eligibility and improve the uptake of the scheme,
ideally moving towards an autoenrollment system.
- The government should work towards universal free
meals in early years settings whilst supporting the
sector to be able to implement this. They should improve the
existing free early years meals (FEYM)
programme, promoting awareness amongst parents and early
years professionals, removing restrictive criteria and increasing
the scope beyond maintained settings.
- The Government should further support local
authorities to provide tailored solutions to
food poverty based on local needs. We recommend that
central government provides regular and sustainable funding for
all English local authorities to set up their own Food Poverty
Alliances and Food Poverty Plans, including the views of those
affected by food poverty.
Quote
Dr Kerris Cooper, Senior Researcher in Early Years and
Inequalities at the Education Policy Institute
said:
“This research highlights the urgency of addressing food
poverty for children under five. We know that the first five
years is a critical period of development, yet we also know
that children of this age are more likely to experience food
poverty.
The evidence is clear on how damaging food poverty is for young
children's outcomes. For the government to achieve its mission
of breaking down barriers to opportunity it needs to take
action to reduce food poverty for under-fives.
We have an opportunity with the upcoming child poverty strategy
to address the disadvantage faced by the youngest children who
have been overlooked in food poverty policy and debate.”
Background and methodology
The aim of this report is to understand more about food poverty
in the early years and what can be done to effectively address
it. We did this through a series of evidence reviews and expert
interviews with key organisations whose work focuses on food
poverty and/or early years. The evidence reviews are based on
literature searches using key words as well as snowballing
references from identified relevant research. Automation tools
were also used to identify local place-based initiatives to
address food poverty, which involved web scraping and large
language models.
We considered evidence on the causes and consequences of food
poverty for under-fives; the effectiveness of existing national
policies; examples of local place-based approaches to
addressing food poverty; and what we can learn from what other
countries are doing
