Steve Brine (Winchester) (Con) I beg to move, That this House has
considered universal infant free school meals. It is good to see
you in the headteacher’s chair, Mr Gray. In my time in the House, I
have seen many innovative ways of speaking in a debate, but the
mover of one debate speaking on the following one, as the hon.
Member for Glasgow North (Patrick Grady) has just done, is a new
one, even on me. There are lots of debates around on universal
infant free...Request free trial
(Winchester) (Con)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered universal infant free school
meals.
It is good to see you in the headteacher’s chair, Mr Gray. In my
time in the House, I have seen many innovative ways of speaking
in a debate, but the mover of one debate speaking on the
following one, as the hon. Member for Glasgow North () has just done, is a new
one, even on me.
There are lots of debates around on universal infant free school
meals, and lots of things that could be meant by that phrase. A
number of the briefings I have been sent ahead of today’s debate
back up that view. There is the campaign being pushed by Jamie
Oliver and others on extending the free school meal entitlement
to all children. There is the ongoing debate on school holiday
food for those eligible for free school meals during term time.
On that issue, I want to recognise how responsive and welcome
Ministers have been, getting help to my constituents where it is
most needed. I place on the record my thanks to them for
that.
Today’s debate, however, is not about either of those areas,
important though they are. I want to focus on the pressure being
felt by headteachers across my constituency, and, I am sure,
elsewhere, when it comes to meeting the cost of what is supposed
to be a universal entitlement to free school meals for
infant-aged children. Put simply, there is a gap between the
funding received and the cost of putting good-quality food on the
school table. There is an inevitable impact on school budgets,
which make up the shortfall. Heads began to raise that issue with
me late last year. We will come on to some figures for Winchester
in a moment.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I commend the hon. Gentleman for bringing this issue this
forward. He is absolutely right. There is pressure on
headmasters. There is pressure coming from parents, who are
having difficulty providing meals for their children at school,
and school uniforms. On support for parents, including through
the universal provision of school meals, does he agree that the
least we could do for all those working parents who are
struggling to make ends meet is to help them, and help
headmasters as well?
Yes, headmasters and headmistresses are in a very difficult
position; I will quote some of them shortly.
Representatives of UK wholesalers have contacted me to express
concern about the fact that because of food inflation, rising
energy bills and increased labour costs, they are fulfilling
their public sector food contracts, but at a loss. I think there
was broad welcome for the Government’s recent decision to
increase the funding for universal infant free school meals by 7p
per pupil, but that rise remains well behind the rise in food
inflation, which is running at 20% for wholesalers, according to
the Federation of Wholesale Distributors.
(Havant) (Con)
I thank my hon. Friend for supporting my recent campaign to
increase funding for school breakfast clubs for infants. Will he
continue to support that campaign? Does he agree that school
breakfast clubs effectively complement the provision of school
lunches, which he so confidently and eloquently campaigns
for?
Yes. School food is important. My good friend, the hon. Member
for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson), chair of the
all-party parliamentary group on school food, is here. When I was
the public health Minister, I worked with Kellogg’s on school
breakfast clubs and the breakfast club awards that it runs so
successfully in our country. I am sorry that the campaign of my
hon. Friend the Member for Havant () did not bear fruit in this
Budget, but I know he will not give up, and I shall work
alongside him. As Chair of the Select Committee on Health and
Social Care and a constituency MP, I am interested in this issue,
as well as in wider prevention work. Healthy, well-fed children
learn well.
(Washington and Sunderland
West) (Lab)
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
As I mentioned the hon. Lady, I had best give way to her.
Mrs Hodgson
As the hon. Gentleman mentioned, I chair the APPG on school food.
He makes the point that the money given for infant free school
meals has not kept pace with inflation. Public sector caterers
are really struggling to continue to provide the high-quality
meals that we all want provided. If funding had risen with
inflation since 2014, the amount per meal would stand at £2.97;
it is currently only £2.41, as the hon. Gentleman knows. By my
maths, that is a 19% shortfall—£150 per year, per child. The
Government are yet again asking schools to do more with less.
Does he agree that school meal funding needs to be made fit for
the future?
That is the point of today’s debate. I will supplement the
figures that the hon. Lady gave in one moment. We have slightly
digressed, and now we are back on subject. I am told that the
impact of food inflation has already resulted in some pupils
being forced to accept smaller lunches with potentially lower
nutritional value, and in some cases schools have opted to offer
only packed lunches because of the cost of the energy needed to
produce lunches. Some wholesalers have reported that they are
reducing portion sizes; thinner sliced ham in baguettes and
reduced meat content in sausages are two examples. That should
worry all of us.
(Lewisham East) (Lab)
I am grateful to the hon. Member for making such significant
points on this issue. As somebody who used to receive free school
meals, and coming from a constituency where a high number of
children receive free school meals, I really understand the
importance of a good-quality meal. Does he agree that the
Government must really look at all avenues to try to avert this
serious shortfall in covering the price of school meals?
Yes, and I will come on to my asks. One that I was not going to
cover, but will, is the discrepancy between the amount we pay for
the universal infant entitlement and the amount we pay for those
who are entitled to free school meals through circumstances.
There is a curious difference. Why does the one meal rate one
amount, and the other a different amount? I know that the chair
of the APPG, the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West,
certainly recognises that.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently published its report on
the costings of free school meals. I am not sure if the Minister
saw its work, but it found that if the price per meal had risen
with inflation since 2014, it would be £2.87 today. That is a few
pence lower than the figure mentioned by the chair of the APPG,
but it is clearly still a big jump from the current £2.41.
The Local Authority Caterers Association has in its membership
over 300 local authorities, as well as contract caterers,
catering managers, and kitchen and school staff, which means that
some 80% of school food is provided by its members. It told me
that without change, the future of the sector is, in its word,
“bleak”. In March, it published its “If not now, when?” mission,
which calls on the Government to reform school meal funding,
address inflationary pressures, and commit to ongoing reviews
that make adjustment for inflation. I echo that as my first ask
this morning, and this is why: one school in my constituency—I
will not name any of them, to respect their wishes—receives £2.41
per child, yet as of October last year, it pays £2.80 per child,
per school meal, to the main provider in Hampshire. It told me
that it had to subsidise meals with around £4,700 from the school
budget between November 2022 and the end of the financial year,
which has just passed.
Another small rural school in my constituency reported a total
shortfall this financial year of £3,150. These do not sound like
big figures, but the metric goes up: the bigger the school, the
bigger the numbers. When there are very tight budgets—which, of
course, they have—they can be tipped into a deficit
situation.
(Twickenham) (LD)
I congratulate the hon. Member on securing this really important
debate. Many of the points he makes are exactly the points that
primary schools in my constituency of Twickenham raise with me
regularly. Although we and they welcome the Mayor of London’s
announcement that he will roll out free school meals to all
primary children next year for a year only, there are grave
concerns that that will not be funded properly. Some primary
schools told me that they could find themselves £30,000 to
£40,000 out of pocket if the meals are not funded properly, and
the capital cost of expanding kitchens and dining areas is not
met. Does he agree that although the policy change is welcome, it
needs to be funded properly?
I do, and if I were a London MP, I would be very concerned about
that. I can understand that the policy is electorally attractive
on a leaflet, but unless it is funded, we could end up with the
situation that I am describing, times some. As I said, the debate
is not about widening entitlement to free school meals to all
primary children, but the hon. Lady sets out a great danger.
Mrs Hodgson
On a point of clarification, I, too was worried about the funding
and had read the same information as the hon. Member for
Twickenham (), so I asked to meet the
Mayor of London’s team, who will be taking the programme forward.
They assured me that although a sum of money has been assigned—a
proposed £2.65 a meal—the funding will be found and will be
sustainable. They are aware of the concerns, but—
(in the Chair)
Order. Interventions should be brief.
We can go down this rabbit hole. The funding can be found up
front, as it was for the free bus pass entitlement, but it can
then tail away. It is a matter of whether it is sustained, as the
hon. Member mentioned; that is the key point.
I have two other examples. A Winchester city centre school
contacted me predicting a shortfall of about £4,000 in the
financial year that we have just entered. A larger infant school
told me of an £11,000 deficit on school meals last year. The head
told me:
“This is having a significant impact on an already very pressured
budget; we have an in-year deficit of around £25,000 this year
and nearly half of that is caused by the infant school meals
offer.”
That is not easy listening, but these are real figures from real
schools and real headteachers in my patch.
To conclude the examples, one headteacher put it to me:
“My point is that Universal Free School Meals are not free.
Parents believe they are. Therefore, quite rightly they opt for
their children to have school meals. I know of schools who are
now writing to their parents explaining the situation and asking
them for a donation to cover the cost of their child’s meal.
Personally, I do not want to be forced down this route. If the
meals are advertised as free, then they should be free (there’s a
clue in the name!).”
She concludes:
“When this Government policy came in, it was not meant to have a
financial impact on schools and, indeed, it means that schools
like ours will be forced to set a deficit budget and hence make
staffing cuts.”
There is perhaps hope in the story. It is only right to report
that, during my research for the debate, I heard from one school
in my area—I do not doubt that there could be others—that is
taking matters into its own hands and moving away from Hampshire
County Council Catering Services, or H3CS, which is the main
provider of food to Hampshire’s schools.
One school told me that it had made the switch to another
provider where meals are
“better quality, with wider choice, and at a reasonable price for
families.”
It tells me that the food is seasonal and locally and sustainably
sourced, with zero single-use plastic. As MPs, we all know that
when we go into our schools, the No. 1 issue that children want
to talk to us about is plastics, the environment and
sustainability, so it ticks lots of boxes. Yet 82% of Hampshire’s
schools—mostly primary schools—use H3CS, despite support being
available to move providers if that is what they want.
For some schoolchildren, the school meal will be their only hot
meal that day. It might be their only meal that day. We know that
the provision of good-quality food is key to pupils’ wellbeing
and ensuring that they can fully engage in teaching and learning.
We also know that school budgets are under pressure, but I hope
that the Minister recognises from the examples I have given that
there is an issue.
We must ensure that the provision of a good-quality meal does not
need to be subsidised by funds intended to support core
education. It is therefore essential that the rate is adjusted to
reflect rising costs. Will the Minister update the House on that?
Will he also update me on any moves afoot to reform school meal
funding and simplify the equitable flow of money from Government
to school kitchen? Lastly, what can the Government do to promote
a more diverse, competitive marketplace in school food? What
support does the Department provide to local authorities, and
therefore headteachers, to make it easy for schools to switch
when they deem a change is to the advantage of their setting?
I am grateful to those who contacted me ahead of the debate,
especially the headteachers in Winchester and Chandler’s Ford.
This aspect of school food is not much discussed in the House—I
have not taken part in a debate on the issue, and I have been
here for almost 13 years—so I am pleased to raise some of the
issues brought to me through my constituency casework. I thank
colleagues for their interventions and look forward to hearing
from my good friend the excellent Schools Minister.
11.14am
The Minister for Schools ()
It is a pleasure to serve under your beady eye, Mr Gray. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester () on securing this important but
short debate on school food. We can all agree on the importance
of ensuring that children in school are given the best
opportunities to succeed.
My hon. Friend the Member for Havant (), in an intervention, raised the
issue of school breakfasts. The Government are committed to
continuing to support school breakfasts. In November last year we
extended the national school breakfast programme for an
additional year. Overall, we are investing up to £30 million in
that programme, which will support up to 2,500 schools in
disadvantaged areas, meaning that thousands of children from
low-income families will be offered free, nutritious breakfasts
to better support their attainment.
My hon. Friend the Member for Winchester also raised the issue of
the holiday activities and food programme. This year, the
Government are again investing over £200 million in that
programme, with all 152 local authorities in England delivering
it. Last summer, the programme reached over 685,000 children and
young people in England.
The Government support the provision of food in schools so that
pupils are well nourished, develop healthy eating habits and can
concentrate and learn. The universal infant free school meal
policy, introduced by a Conservative- led Government in 2014, is
a vital component of that provision.
I hope the Minister will recognise that that was a Liberal
Democrat policy? It was a flagship policy introduced by the
coalition, and we were very proud of it. However, since 2014, as
we have heard, the funding for that policy has only risen by 11p,
which is why we have the yawning gap that Members have pointed
out today. Will the Minister put on record that schools should
not be forced to choose between cutting and scrimping on teaching
budgets—and other budgets that benefit children—and eroding food
standards?
Of course, I acknowledge the Liberal Democrats—that is why I said
Conservative-led Government. It was a policy of both parties; we
believed in it very strongly and we made sacrifices elsewhere in
budgets in order to fund it. I acknowledge that it was a
coalition Government—a coalition policy—that led to the
introduction of universal infant free school meals, which we have
maintained ever since.
We recognise the cost pressures that schools and suppliers are
facing. Officials are holding regular meetings with other
Government Departments and representatives of the food industry
to discuss a variety of issues, including public sector food
supply. I take this opportunity to thank the companies and
organisations that my officials have spoken to for the
constructive steps they have taken to deliver services to our
schools.
Schools manage their own contracts using Government funding to
procure services from private sector caterers or local
authorities. Particular pressures have arisen as a result of food
price inflation, which has risen higher and faster than the
headline consumer prices index rate.
(Glasgow North West)
(SNP)
I think everybody in the debate understands the importance of
children being well fed in order to learn well, but seven out of
10 families on universal credit are still not receiving free
school meals. Given the very strong public support—over 80% of
the public support free school meals for children in households
receiving universal credit—is it not time to look at that
specific group? As the Minister said, food inflation is so high
that family budgets have been stretched very thin.
One reason why the number of children eligible for
benefits-related free school meals has risen from 1.7 million to
1.9 million is the protections we put in place as families move
on to universal credit.
I know that, along with transport costs, increased staff costs
have also affected the industry, primarily linked to rises in the
national minimum wage. We continue to review funding in order to
ensure that schools can provide healthy and nutritious meals.
This is a very serious point that affects children across our
constituencies. The Minister says that the Government are
reviewing it, but how long it will take for them to do so and
when we will get some of the decisions we seek?
Of course, we keep all the issues under review and continually
look at school funding. We look at the composition of the
national funding formula in great detail every year; we are doing
so now for the following year.
The funding for the free school meal factor in the national
funding formula is increasing by 2.4% for 2023-24 in line with
the latest available GDP deflator forecast when the 2023-24
national funding formula was published in July of last year. As a
result of the significant extra school funding awarded by the
Chancellor in the autumn statement, schools will receive an
additional £2 billion in each of the ’23-24 and ’24-25 academic
years.
The core schools budget, which covers schools’ day-to-day running
costs, including their energy bills and the costs of providing
income-related free school meals, rose from £49.8 billion in
’21-22 to £53.8 billion the year after, and will continue to rise
to £57.3 billion in ’23-24 and £58.8 billion in ’24-25. By
’24-25, funding per pupil will have risen to its highest ever
level in real terms. Those increases provide support to schools
to deal with the impact of inflation on their budgets.
We spend about £600 million a year ensuring that an additional
1.25 million infants enjoy a free, healthy and nutritious meal at
lunchtime. Combined with around 1.9 million pupils who are
eligible for and claim a meal through benefits-related free
school meals, this accounts for more than one third of all pupils
in school, compared with 2010, when one sixth of pupils were
eligible for free school meals. The Government also support a
further 90,000 disadvantaged further education students with a
free meal at lunchtime.
All children in reception, year 1 and year 2 in England’s
state-funded schools receive a free meal, and have done since the
introduction of the policy in 2014. Schools up and down the
country offer free meals to their infant pupils, helping to
improve children’s education, boost their health and save parents
around £400 a year. Universal infant free school meals are funded
through a direct grant to schools. To recognise the pressures
facing schools, last June we announced an £18 million increase to
the per-pupil funding rate for universal infant free school meals
to support costs of food, transport and staff wages. That
increased rate was backdated to April in recognition of those
costs.
We understand the issues that are being raised and acknowledge
that factors such as transport costs and the cost of living wage
affecting catering workers are having an impact on the amount
that can be spent on infant meals in schools. The Government take
on board the comments regarding a discrepancy between the funding
rate attributed to universal infant free school meals when
compared to the rate provided for those pupils in receipt of
benefits-related free school meals. The rate of funding for UIFSM
is regularly reviewed, and I can assure my hon. Friend the Member
for Winchester and all other hon. Members taking part in this
debate that I am actively looking at this area. All school meals
provided under universal infant free school meals are required to
adhere to the school food standards, which require school
caterers to serve healthy and nutritious food and drinks to
ensure that children get the energy and nutrition that they need
across the school day.
In recognition of cost pressures on core schools funding,
including benefits-related free schools meals, we have already
distributed additional funding through a schools supplementary
grant. As a result, core schools funding for mainstream schools
increased by £2.5 billion in the 2022-23 financial year, compared
with the previous year.
It is right that individual schools determine their own budgets
for meal provision by taking into account funding received
centrally alongside funding for meals paid for by parents. We
expect schools to enter into supply contracts accordingly. While
the Government set the legal requirements for food provision and
standards, we do not set the contract price, which is subject to
agreement between schools and the suppliers.
Mrs Hodgson
The Minister mentioned the importance of those meals being
healthy, and that is a key factor in UIFSM. It is not just about
alleviating food poverty, but about removing the stigma. On the
health point, the four London boroughs that have extended school
meals to all primary children have found that obesity rates have
fallen by 9.3% in reception children, and 5.6% in year 6
children. Pockets of bad practice on school food are few and far
between, and we normally hear about good practice. The Minister
will agree that school food is by far the healthiest option. Only
1% of packed lunches have been found to meet the school food
standards.
(in the Chair)
Order. Interventions really must be brief.
I do not disagree with the hon. Member. Food standards and the
regulations are very stringent, and we keep those regulations
under review because I want to look at other issues within them.
School food can also be used as a way of teaching children to
adopt a healthy diet. The hon. Member made her point well.
I talked about schools being responsible for their contracts.
Although we are clear that individual schools are responsible for
their own budgets, we provide a free advice and guidance service
for state schools, aiming to help them save money on existing
contracts. The “get help buying for schools” service is made up
of various resources to help schools buy goods and services
efficiently and in compliance with all the regulations.
In conclusion, the provision of meals to infant pupils in school,
and the wellbeing and nutrition of eligible pupils, are at the
top of the Government’s priorities. We are monitoring the costs
of schools and suppliers, and we have increased funds both
directly through the amounts allocated for free school meals and
via the universal infant free school meals grant, and indirectly
by increasing core schools budgets. I understand and acknowledge
the pressures that the industry is facing, and we will continue
to take that into account when determining spending
priorities.
I am confident that the offer we have in place through universal
infant free school meals ensures that those children receive the
best start to their time in school. It ensures that they can
develop healthy eating habits at an early age, and that they can
concentrate and learn. The offer also ensures that the Government
continue to provide targeted support to pupils from disadvantaged
backgrounds who are most in need.
Question put and agreed to.
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