Ian Byrne (Liverpool, West Derby) (Lab) I beg to move, That this
House has considered access to free school meals for children with
special educational needs and disabilities. It is an honour to
serve under your chairship, Dr Huq, and thank you to all of the
hon. Members for supporting the debate today. I am pleased to be
leading this debate on fair access to free school meals for
disabled children and those with special educational needs, to
ensure that their...Request free trial
(Liverpool, West Derby)
(Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered access to free school meals for
children with special educational needs and disabilities.
It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq, and thank
you to all of the hon. Members for supporting the debate today. I
am pleased to be leading this debate on fair access to free
school meals for disabled children and those with special
educational needs, to ensure that their voices are heard in this
House.
I thank my constituent Irene Dow, because it was after meeting
Irene and hearing about her experience as a parent and the
shocking unfairness in the current system that I applied for the
debate. In the Gallery with her are staff and campaigners from
the charity for families with disabled children, Contact. Their
incredibly powerful research and campaigning has been fundamental
to the debate, and the support they have given to families has
been absolutely invaluable.
It was a privilege today to meet campaigner and parent Natalie
Hay, who is here with her son. She started campaigning on this
issue after realising that many disabled children were eligible
for free school meals but were unable to access them. I commend
her for her interview today on Sky, for many reasons. I place on
record the importance of the work that Irene, Natalie, Contact
and many other campaigners do, and I pay tribute to everything
they have done to put this injustice on the political agenda.
They should not have had to fight this hard and for so long, and
I sincerely hope that the Minister will be able to give us
assurances that the Government will act swiftly in response. We
saw, at Prime Minister’s questions today, how fast the Government
can act to respond to an injustice, if the political will is
there.
The key issue I wish to raise is that thousands of children with
special educational needs and disabilities are missing out on the
free school meals that they are eligible for due to their
disability or sensory needs. That is despite the law being clear
that most should be offered an alternative, such as a supermarket
voucher. Children with conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy and
autism are subsequently missing out on the equivalent of £570 a
year of financial help. That is causing many families to fall
into debt and means that they need to turn to food banks, which
is completely unacceptable and totally unnecessary. Contact
calculates that more 164,000 disabled children are unable to
access their free school meals.
(Birmingham, Hall Green)
(Lab)
Does my hon. Friend agree that food bank numbers are at a record
high? Children are going to school hungry, and this is often the
only hot meal that they will have. On top of that, if children
with sensory needs or disabilities are missing out on their
entitlements, the Government and statutory organisations need to
do a lot more to make sure that no child misses out on those.
I totally agree. Contact calculates that more than 164,000
disabled children are unable to access their free school meals
despite meeting the Government’s eligibility requirements. That
is truly shocking. Access to food is a basic human right, and
campaigning for universal free school meals is one of the five
key asks of the “Right to Food” campaign. While we wait for that,
we must ensure that the current system is fair and equal and that
it delivers, in practice, what it claims to deliver. Disabled
children and their families are already more likely to be living
in poverty due to the difficulties of juggling care and work.
Research shows that they have also been disproportionately
affected by cost of living pressures and the pandemic.
(Manchester, Gorton) (Lab)
My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech on this very
important subject. Does he agree that it is utterly unacceptable
that 60% of the disabled children who are eligible for free
school meals cannot eat school meals due to health conditions,
dietary requirements or sensory processing difficulties? Schools
must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled children
can access the free lunches that they are entitled to, and the
Department for Education must step up and support schools to do
that.
Absolutely, and I will cover that in my speech. Contact has found
that 85% of families missing out on their free school meals
entitlement reported that this has hugely increased pressure on
their weekly budgets. Last year, I met my constituent Irene,
along with a representative of the charity Contact, and they
talked to me about why so many disabled children are missing out
on free school meals and what can be done about it.
My constituent’s son, aged 15, is severely autistic and has
avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. Since the age of six,
he has been at special school. He cannot eat the school food,
because of his highly restricted diet. He mostly eats bread,
butter and sometimes a bit of cheese and ham. For him, it is
about the sight and texture of the food as well as the taste.
That means that his mum has always made and paid for his packed
lunches, even though he has been eligible for free school meals
throughout his school life, which has been over a decade.
As Natalie highlighted in her interview this morning, it was only
during lockdown that many families received their free school
meals in the form of supermarket vouchers. The vouchers were cut
off after schools reopened, and children were once again wrongly
denied the free school meals to which they are entitled. We know
that support can be given, so that is inexcusable.
(Poplar and Limehouse)
(Lab)
I represent a constituency with one of the highest rates of child
poverty in the entire country, and we know only too well that the
current situation is compounded by the SEND funding crisis. Does
my hon. Friend agree that a simple solution to the problem would
be to update the Government’s FSM guidance to make it clear that
schools must make reasonable adjustments, such as ensuring that
supermarket vouchers can be made available, and to write to all
schools to make sure that they communicate that more widely?
I thank my hon. Friend for that point, with which I absolutely
agree and which I will cover later in my questions to the
Minister.
We know that support can be given. It is therefore absolutely
inexcusable that I am standing before the Minister today to tell
him that 164,000 children are not receiving their free school
meals. Research carried out by Contact in March 2023 with 1,500
families found that there are different reasons why disabled
children cannot access their free school lunch. That includes 60%
who cannot eat school meals due to their health condition,
dietary requirements or sensory processing difficulties, 22% who
are off school because of a long-term medical condition or
illness, and 18% who are not in school because they have an
education package provided by the council or are waiting for a
suitable school place. Many parents are incorrectly being refused
food vouchers as a reasonable adjustment; others are being asked
to travel miles to pick up a food parcel that does not include
food that their child can eat. Families should not have to face
that battle.
(Wirral West) (Lab)
My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. I pay tribute to
his tireless work in campaigning on issues related to hunger; he
is exemplary in that regard.
Today’s debate is particularly timely because yesterday it was
announced that primary school children in London would receive
free lunches for another year. Will my hon. Friend join me in
commending that action on behalf of the authority in London and
in saying that surely we can follow that across England? Does he
agree that it is important that allowance be made for disabled
children in receiving their school meals if they are unable to
access the meals that other children are receiving
I totally agree. and his team in London deserve a
huge amount of credit for extending the scheme to the second
year. Hopefully that can be replicated soon across the
country.
Section 512 of the Education Act 1996 places a duty on maintained
schools, academies and free schools to provide free school meals
to pupils of all ages who meet the criteria. The meals must be
provided to all eligible pupils, either on the school premises or
at any other place where education is being provided. That could
take, for example, the form of a voucher. Schools also have a
duty under section 20 of the Equality Act 2010 to make a
reasonable adjustment to the way in which free school lunches are
delivered if the standard way of delivering them puts a disabled
pupil at a substantial disadvantage compared with other pupils.
However, many schools are unaware of their responsibilities, as
the Government’s free school meal guidance is silent on a
school’s duty to make reasonable adjustments and fails to make
reference to the Equality Act altogether. That means that even
when parents ask for alternative provision, schools are not
complying with equalities law. Parents are therefore put in a
difficult position in which they are in conflict with the school
and then face a battle to challenge the refusal.
I call on the Government to take responsibility, update the free
school meals guidance, and provide any additional resource and
support needed to schools and local authorities to make this
happen immediately. It must be made clear that schools and
councils need to provide an alternative—ideally a supermarket
voucher—to disabled children who cannot access a free school meal
in the regular way. I believe that if the Government addressed
the issue and established supermarket vouchers as an alternative
to free school meals and an acceptable reasonable adjustment, it
would give a workable solution to a situation that so many people
find themselves in, as we saw during lockdown.
Last month, the Government conceded that free school meals should
be provided to eligible children who are unable to attend school
due to their special educational needs and have the package of
support often referred to as EOTAS—education otherwise than at
school. The Secretary of State for Education has said that it may
be a breach of article 14 of the European convention on human
rights if children receiving state education other than at school
are not provided with meals; the Government are therefore
preparing guidance for local authorities, which is expected in
March 2024, to ensure that local authorities provide access to a
meal for those with EOTAS. That really is welcome: it means that
almost 2,000 disabled children across England who have been
missing out on a free school meal may now get funding for a free
lunch from their local council.
I will finish by asking the Minister five questions. First, will
he ask his Department to update the free schools meals guidance
to make clear to schools, governing bodies and councils that
eligible disabled children can be offered a free school meal in
the form of a voucher? Secondly, will he update the free school
meals guidance so that it clearly references the Equality Act and
the duty to make reasonable adjustments? Thirdly, will he write
to all schools about the duty to make reasonable adjustments to
the way in which free school lunches are provided so that
disabled children do not miss out, and will his Department
support schools to ensure the provision of appropriate food at
school for children with special educational needs and
disabilities that caters to their individual needs? Fourthly,
will he use this opportunity to confirm to the House his
intentions to produce new guidance on free school meals for
children with education otherwise than at school, and to set out
timescales for that guidance and how his Department will work
with parents to co-produce it? Finally, many parents of disabled
children have raised the issue that they are unable to access the
Government’s breakfast and holiday schemes. Will he commit to
meeting campaigners from Contact and addressing this
immediately?
We are living in a country where millions of children are
suffering from hunger. Our fight for their right to food will
continue. The Minister can make a huge difference right now to
the lives of over 164,000 children in this country, without any
change in legislation. This is such a simple fix. I and so many
struggling families hope that he will do the right thing
today.
Several hon. Members rose—
(in the Chair)
Order. I remind hon. Members to stand if they want to make a
speech, so that we can calculate how much time everyone gets.
5.30pm
(Torbay) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. I
congratulate the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby () on securing this debate and on
the way in which he opened it. I also thank Stefanie Curran of
Punk Against Poverty, which is based in Torbay, for supplying
information to help me in preparing my remarks.
The provision of free school meals is not only a way of
supporting families, but a way of ensuring that children are
ready to learn and engage with their lessons. It has been good to
see this provision supplemented in recent years by the holiday
activities and food programme. I have been very pleased to see
the excellent work being done to provide the programme in
Torbay—especially the work undertaken by the Love Enterprise
community interest company in Paignton, which is working to
support children aged 11 to 16 over the Christmas holidays. I
take on board the point well made by the hon. Member for
Liverpool, West Derby about the need to think about how that
provision can be well accessed.
The law is clear: section 512 of the Education Act 1996 places a
duty on maintained schools, academies and free schools to provide
free school meals to pupils of all ages who meet the criteria.
These meals must be provided to all eligible pupils
“either on the school premises or at any place other than the
school premises where education is being provided”.
Schools also have a duty under section 20 of the Equality Act
2010 to make reasonable adjustments to the way in which free
school meals are delivered if the standard way of delivering them
puts a disabled pupil at a substantial disadvantage compared with
other pupils. However, it is clear from initial feedback that
many schools may be unaware of their responsibilities. The
Government’s guidance is silent on how to support disabled
children in accessing a free meal if they are unable to access it
in the regular way, and it does not mention a school’s duty to
make reasonable adjustments.
As has been mentioned, in March last year the charity Contact
surveyed 1,500 families with disabled children eligible for free
school meals. It found that 60% of disabled children could not
eat their free lunch because of their health condition, dietary
requirements or sensory processing difficulties that made the
lunch room off limits; 22% were off school because of a long-term
medical condition or illness; 18% were not in school as they had
an education package provided by the council, an EOTAS, or were
waiting for a suitable school place; and 6% were attending a
school without a canteen. Overall, it was estimated that a third
of eligible disabled children cannot access the free school meal
to which they are entitled, for reasons relating to their
condition or disability. As a result, more than 164,000 disabled
children are missing out on up to £570-worth of food each year,
despite the law stating that reasonable adjustments must be
made.
It is also worth noting some of the feedback I received while
preparing for this debate. Even where a suitable meal provision
is available in a way that can be accessed, the issue persists
that children are sometimes offered a very limited choice. One
parent who contacted me highlighted how her son ended up getting
a jacket potato every day. Yes, it met his dietary needs, and
yes, it was nutritious, but being offered the same meal every day
was unlikely to provide a varied diet or encourage him to take up
the school meal on offer.
We know that meeting dietary needs is not unique to school-age
children. We have seen many options develop in recent years to
support those with complex dietary needs. There is a range of
home delivery services that we can all find on our phones, and
there are options to provide vouchers that allow products to be
bought from suppliers that are better able to supply something
specialist.
I am conscious of time, and I am looking forward to colleagues’
contributions and the Minister’s response. There are some
specific points that I would be interested to hear the Minister
to cover. First, when he updates the free school meals guidance,
will he make sure that it makes clear reference to the duty to
make reasonable adjustments? Will he write to all schools to
remind them of their duty to make these adjustments? Will he
ensure that when the Government publish their new free school
meals guidance, it is co-produced with affected families? What
options will he encourage schools to consider in order to ensure
that a nutritious free school meal that meets the dietary needs
of disabled children is available? That does not mean just
providing the same meal every day.
I welcome the chance to have highlighted this important issue. I
hope the Minister will set out what difference can be made to
ensure that those who have disabilities do not miss out on the
opportunity of the hot free school meal to which they are legally
entitled.
5.35pm
(Coventry South) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, West Derby
() on securing this important
debate, which shines a light on the need to ensure that free
school meals are made accessible to all children, including those
with special educational needs and disabilities.
Just this week, there was fantastic news for all of us working to
end child hunger: the London Mayor, , announced that he will extend
his programme of free school meals for all primary school kids in
London for another year. This follows the huge success of his
programme so far, which since September has provided 17 million
healthy, warm, nutritious meals to nearly 300,000 primary school
children across London schools, boosting their health, wellbeing
and attainment and supporting their families. But as today’s
debate highlights, having free school meals for all must go
beyond making sure that all children are eligible. It means
scrutinising the delivery of free school meals and making sure
that all children, including those with disabilities, can access
them fully. That includes children like Jordan.
Jordan is five years old. He has hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy
and epilepsy. Due to his disability, he struggles to eat solid
food. In the past, this has meant that he could not put on
weight, because it was taking him more calories to digest food
than he could absorb from it. Fortunately, since Jordan was two,
he has benefited from a blended diet fed through a gastrostomy
button. This has helped him significantly, allowing him to put on
weight and to grow. He can finally access the nutrition he needs,
but Jordan’s school cannot cater for the blended diet that has
benefited him significantly so far. That means that he misses out
on the free school lunch he is entitled to, so his family have to
send in blended food for him to make sure that he does not go
hungry.
Jordan is not alone: 60% of disabled children who are eligible
for free school lunches cannot access them because of their
disabilities. Many children with conditions such as autism or
avoidant restrictive food intake disorder are unable to eat the
food provided by their school. This is an injustice. It leaves
disabled kids cruelly excluded and leaves their families without
much-needed support. I have long been an advocate for free school
meals for all. With 4 million children living in poverty,
including more than a third of children in Coventry South, there
are horror stories of kids crying because they are hungry or
being forced to steal food for their lunch.
We know that free school meals can be transformational. That is
backed up by research that consistently shows that free school
meals improve children’s health, concentration, attainment and
behaviour. They are a lifeline for families, too, saving them
hundreds of pounds each year, reducing stress and saving parents’
time, but it is a gross injustice to give free school meals to
some children while those with disabilities are left without.
Research shows that families with disabled children would need a
pay rise of £10,000 a year to cover the additional costs they
incur. It is these children who need free healthy lunches the
most, particularly as the cost of living crisis continues to
bite, so it is vital that the Government act to address this
cruel inconsistency. That means supporting schools to adjust
lunches to meet the needs of disabled kids. It also means
offering food vouchers as an alternative, so that where schools
cannot provide food suitable for disabled children or where
children are not in school because of their disabilities,
families are provided with financial support to feed their
children.
I want to live in a world where no child goes hungry and no
families are left struggling to put food on the table for their
kids. That is why I have been campaigning alongside many
colleagues for over a year for free school meals for all primary
school children. Today’s debate highlights the need not just to
widen the entitlement to free school meals, but to make sure that
there is more flexibility in their delivery. No child should be
missing out just because of their disability, so let us extend
free school meals to all children. Let us end the injustice that
sees kids like Jordan missing out. Let us ensure that every
primary school child across the UK has access to a free, healthy
lunch, each and every day.
Several hon. Members rose—
(in the Chair)
Order. The Front Benchers will start at 6.02 pm, which leaves us
with a speaking limit of three minutes for each Back Bencher.
5.39pm
Sir (North East Somerset)
(Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. I am
grateful to the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby () for securing this important
debate.
The reason I want to speak is very simple, and I will be brief.
My constituent Emma Knops contacted me because her children
suffer from coeliac disease, are dairy and soy-intolerant and
have sensory processing difficulties. The issue here seems to me
an incredibly straightforward one: the law says one thing and the
guidance says another. The Government have a choice: they can
change the law or they can change the guidance. It seems to me
that there is no desire to change the law; they must therefore
change the guidance.5.40pm
(Somerton and Frome) (LD)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I thank
the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby () for securing this debate.
Mainstream and special schools across Somerset are stretched
beyond sense and practicality. Local education practitioners and
local authorities are at the top of their class in delivering
tailored care, but 13 years of Tory government have left them
without the pens and paper they need to get on with the job.
We need to start with clear Government guidance. The free school
meals guidance from February 2023 does not even include the term
“SEND”. It has no specific guidance for SEND children and
pretends that children on free school meals have a homogeneous
identity, devoid of nuance or feeling. It is unfit for purpose.
This speaks to a wider failing in Government guidance that sees
disability as an optional add-on to legislation, not an integral
part of it. We need to envelop children with special needs and
disabilities, throughout all educational guidance.
I receive frequent representations from neurodivergent
constituents who, after contact with Government services, have
felt stigmatised and patronised. Often there is not a deliberate
bias, but I ask that the Government consider providing education
and training resources, delivered digitally and at low cost and
based on the very latest clinical information.
The Liberal Democrats have already called for continuous,
high-quality professional development for all teachers. It would
be delivered in schools by mental health practitioners with
ringfenced funding, and would prioritise early intervention and
effective communication. Unfortunately, my hon. Friend the Member
for Twickenham () is unwell and is not able to
speak today, but I urge hon. Members to fully support her Bill on
the issue.
SEND children are much more likely to be suspended or excluded.
The suspension rate for England’s 2022-23 autumn term was four
times higher for SEND pupils with an EHCP. The permanent
exclusion rate was six times higher for SEND pupils without an
EHCP. Parents and special guardians are left without the food
support to which they are legally entitled. Food parcels rarely
meet the minimum standard required, so special schools such as
Critchill School in Frome need help to bridge the SEND funding
gap. I have many more constituents who would thrive in these
schools, where they would be understood and supported, but who
cannot get in because there are simply no places.
We need to see nutritional needs included as standard on every
EHCP. That includes sensory issues with certain foods; possible
nutrition issues due to selective eating behaviours; and refusal
to eat, or to eat in public. At the moment, schools cannot opt
out and they cannot suck it up. As eating disorders campaigner
Sophie Maclean told me, “Tough love just doesn’t work.”
5.43pm
(Strangford) (DUP)
It is indeed a pleasure to be called in this debate, Dr Huq. I
first thank the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby () for leading today’s debate on
this issue. He often brings debates to Westminster Hall and I am
always very pleased to come along and support him. They are
always real issues in my constituency; this certainly is. I
understand that the Minister has no responsibility for Northern
Ireland, and I do not ask him to answer on the Northern Irish
perspective, but I wish to add that perspective to this debate,
and to support the hon. Gentleman.
The hon. Member for Torbay () referred to a person who had
the same meal every day. My goodness! Where is the nutrition?
Where is the variety? How do they grow and what do they eat?
Everyone is probably very much aware that you are what you eat.
We often talk about the importance of children in our local
schools having a healthy, balanced diet that not only aids their
learning but stimulates their brain. It is no secret that parents
who have children suffering with disabilities or with special
educational needs often require specialist diets for them.
In Northern Ireland, NI Direct has confirmed that if a child has
a statement of special educational needs and is designated as
having a special diet, they quality for free school meals; we
have a system in place. Some 64,500 pupils in Northern Ireland
have some form of SEN, and some 22,000 of those have a statement
of SEN. Poverty rates in Northern Ireland have skyrocketed over
the last year, which is why I am here to support the hon. Member
for Liverpool, West Derby. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has
concluded that 110,000 children across Northern Ireland are
living in poverty. The overall poverty rate is highest among
children; clearly. free school meals for pupils could help
address that.
I believe that what I am describing in Northern Ireland is
replicated here on the mainland; the hon. Gentleman said that in
his introduction. Poverty can lead to all sorts of other issues
for young children in school, including obesity and dental decay.
We had a debate in the Chamber just yesterday on NHS dentistry;
dentistry, the food we eat and children at school are all part of
the same theme. Schools play a large part in helping young people
develop both physically and mentally, and in the UK, food
insecurity is mostly due to households’ inability to afford
nutritious food.
To conclude, every child in school has a right to a healthy,
balanced and nutritious lunch. As for those with special
educational needs or certain disabilities, we must always take
their choices into account. Offering a free school meal takes so
much pressure off parents. Parents out there who think their
children may be eligible for free school meals but are not sure
should get in touch with their local representative—those who are
in this debate today. I urge the Minister to ensure that the same
opportunities are offered across the United Kingdom, and that we
do all we can to support those in food poverty.
5.47pm
(City of Durham) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. I
thank my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, West Derby () for securing this important
debate, and for his work on the “Right to Food” campaign, which I
fully support. This debate is quite personal to me. I really
empathise with the campaigners and parents here today. For 27
years I was a carer to my daughter, Maria, who had severe
disabilities, so I know from my own experience the pressures that
are put on families.
My hon. Friend, other Members here and I were elected on a
manifesto that pledged to poverty-proof schools. Free breakfast
clubs and universal free school meals were at the heart of that.
I am proud to still champion those policies, because the fact
that so many children in Britain go hungry every day is shameful.
Food insecurity can utterly blight children’s immediate and
future life. It can trigger mental health problems, damage a
child’s physical health and lead to obesity or restricted growth.
It affects children’s school attendance as well as their ability
to learn. Just ask any teacher, and they will say that a hungry
child cannot concentrate in class. I cannot forget the BBC report
in 2018, in which a headteacher described their hungry pupils as
having “grey skin” due to malnutrition.
Six years on and after the pandemic, food insecurity still
blights Britain’s children. Something has gone terribly wrong in
our country. A society that cares for its children does not let
them go hungry, but tragically, that is what successive
Conservative Governments have done. In my constituency, over 19%
of children living in and attending schools in County Durham have
an SEN or EHCP, but only 9.4% of them are eligible for free
school meals. As we have heard, the situation is harder for
children with disabilities, with 33% of them missing out on free
school meals provision. That is more than 164,000, or one third,
of eligible disabled pupils missing out on their free school
meals, which amounts to £570-worth of food each year.
The solutions are obvious, as my hon. Friend the Member for
Liverpool, West Derby, outlined: update the free school meals
guidance, and make it clear that schools can provide an
alternative for disabled children, such as supermarket vouchers.
Brighton and Hove City Council has introduced such a scheme, so
will the Secretary of State pledge to do so here today? That
would be a start in repairing our society’s safety net, which has
been so badly damaged by the last 14 years of austerity.
5.50pm
(Brighton, Kemptown)
(Lab/Co-op)
It is an honour to follow all the previous speakers. I will
follow on from that mention of Brighton and Hove.
Brighton and Hove is slightly, but not hugely, above the national
average for young people and children who have special
educational needs, and for young people with EHCPs. We are not an
outrider in that sense, but we do notice more and more children
not attending school, not because their parents are keeping them
at home—that is another issue entirely—but because the schools
are unable to provide the special educational needs support that
those children need. My view is that this issue is caused by two
things. The first is the disastrous austerity policies that have
led to our schools suffering and unable to support pupils.
Secondly—this is more controversial—I personally believe that we
have had a 20-year incorrect educational project, which believes
in integration only, and not that separate special schools are
sometimes best for many young people.
No matter what additional support is provided, I am afraid that a
pupil with sensory needs will not always manage to work in a
large secondary school where there are thousands of children
running around, and they can sink. However, if they are at a
special school that can provide for their needs in an alternative
location with sensory adaptations, usually off site, they can
flourish. These schools used to be commonly provided by the
mainstream—by local authorities, at a reasonable price for the
authority. Then, when the children leave the school or move into
mainstream school, if that moment comes, they are a big fish in a
small pond, rather than a small fish with lots of sharks. I am
afraid that we have shut down many of those local authority
schools, and local authorities cannot afford to place pupils in
special schools, so a lot of children have been put into
education otherwise than at school, and are therefore not
provided with free school meals.
Only yesterday, the Minister wrote to me to say:
“Regarding students receiving…EOTAS, the department’s position is
that pupils must be registered with a state-funded school in
order to be eligible”,
and that the Department does not plan to change that. Well, that
seems different from today’s briefing from the Department, so of
course there is confusion. Brighton and Hove has decided that we
will skip past this confusion and mandate free school meals for
all those children. They are not there because of parent choice;
they have been placed there by the authority, because the
authority cannot find suitable accommodation. They must be given
vouchers, and the Minister should update the guidance to ensure
that that happens.
5.53pm
(Wansbeck) (Lab)
It is a pleasure, as ever, to serve under your chairmanship, Dr
Huq. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool,
West Derby () for securing this very timely
debate. I declare an interest: I and my four brothers were on
free school meals for most of our school time, so I have lots of
experience of what comes with free school meals.
The Government need to listen. I have met the Minister a number
of times—and you know what? I have always found him very helpful
and prepared to listen; he has not changed his mind on many
things, mind, but he has always been courteous. Hopefully on this
occasion he will listen to what the SEND families have to say,
because the track record on this issue is pretty poor.
I am a firm believer in universal free school meals for all
primary and secondary school students—something that a lot of
people agree with. Other people disagree with it because of
various spurious arguments about universality. As one of my hon.
Friends said, the Mayor of London, various London boroughs, and
the devolved Governments in Wales and Scotland have shown that
universal free school meals can be delivered, so I found it very
distressing to learn from the charity Contact that 164,000
disabled children are missing out on £570-worth of food each year
because of the failure to abide by a clear requirement under the
Education Act 1996. The disregard of the duty to make reasonable
adjustments for disabled children through the issuing of
supermarket vouchers to ensure compliance with the Equality Act
2010 is equally disturbing.
I hope the Minister listens to what is being said in the debate.
What could be more important in this day and age than feeding
kids with special educational needs and disabilities? We need to
look after people, and I plead with the Minister to listen to
what is being said. All we are saying is that we should feed the
children who are most in need.
5.56pm
(Dulwich and West Norwood)
(Lab)
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Dr Huq. I congratulate
my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, West Derby () on securing this important
debate on an issue that affects some of the most vulnerable
children who have special educational needs and disabilities, and
who live in very low-income households, making them eligible for
free school meals.
I am grateful to the charity Contact and to Irene and Natalie,
who are in the Gallery, for the work that they have done to bring
to public attention the issue of children with special
educational needs and disabilities who are eligible for free
school meals but unable to access them, and for all their
advocacy on behalf of families with disabled children. I also
thank all hon. and right hon. Members who have participated in
the debate. We have heard from MPs who represent constituencies
right across the country, including the hon. Member for Torbay
(), the right hon. Member for
North East Somerset (Sir ), my hon. Friends the
Members for City of Durham () and for Brighton, Kemptown
(), the hon. Member for
Somerton and Frome (), and my hon. Friends the
Members for Coventry South () and for Wansbeck (), and from colleagues who made interventions—
And Strangford!
Of course. It would not be a Westminster Hall debate if we had
not heard from the hon. Member for Strangford (), and I apologise profusely for that omission.
We have heard about the impact that the failure to implement
Government legislation is having on families across the country.
The law places a duty on maintained schools, academies and free
schools to provide free school meals to pupils of all ages who
meet specific criteria. Schools also have a duty under the
Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments to the way that free
school lunches are delivered, if the standard way of delivering
them would put a disabled pupil at a substantial disadvantage
compared with other pupils. These duties are not reflected in the
current guidance for schools.
There is also a gap in the legislation in relation to independent
schools. Many children with special educational needs and
disabilities attend specialist independent schools, with funding
from local authorities, under their education, health and care
plans, but there is no duty on those schools to provide free
school meals. That is one of the many examples of the ways in
which children with special educational needs and disabilities
are simply not a priority for the Government.
The system of support on which children with SEND and their
families rely is beyond breaking point. The Government delayed
their SEND review three times, and much of the SEND and
alternative provision improvement plan will not come into effect
until 2025, six years after the review was announced. During that
time, 300,000 children with SEND will have left secondary school,
having spent the entirety of their school education under an
increasingly failing system of SEND support. This issue should be
an urgent priority for the Government. The system is failing
children and their families, and it is an increasingly prominent
factor in the number of councils issuing section 114 notices and
effectively declaring bankruptcy because they can no longer
balance their budget.
The Childhood Trust has found that families of children with SEND
are disproportionately affected by the cost of living crisis, and
they are more likely to live in poverty than families of children
without SEND needs. Our children need and deserve so much better.
Labour will introduce free breakfast clubs in every primary
school to ensure that no child has to start the school day
hungry. We will work to make mainstream schools inclusive for
children with special educational needs and disabilities,
including by supporting teachers to gain the skills and knowledge
they need to teach children with SEND. We will limit the number
of branded items that schools can specify in the school uniform
to put money back in parents’ pockets, and we will work
tirelessly to end the unacceptable level of child poverty, which
has been growing so shamefully on this Government’s watch.
The Tory cost of living crisis is making life hard for far too
many families, and it means that in the short term, access to
entitlements, such as free school meals for children who are
eligible, is more important than ever, and there is no excuse for
the current failure. I hope the Minister will set out the steps
he will take to ensure that children with SEND who are eligible
for free school meals can access them, and that schools and other
education settings are properly supported to meet their duties
under both the Education Act and the Equality Act.
6.01pm
The Minister for Schools ()
What a pleasure it is to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Huq, I
think for the first time. I congratulate the hon. Member for
Liverpool, West Derby () on securing this debate on an
important matter, as demonstrated by the over-subscription of
this debate this afternoon. For their contributions, I thank the
hon. Members for Coventry South (), for Somerton and Frome
(), for Strangford (), of course, for City of Durham (), for Brighton, Kemptown
() and for Wansbeck
(). My hon. Friend the Member for Torbay () gave a compelling speech, and
my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset (Sir
) made a compelling and
pithy point in his speech.
We all agree about the importance of ensuring that all children
in school are given the best opportunities to thrive, and the
Government are determined to ensure that every child, regardless
of background or circumstances, can get the very best start in
life. Today, we discuss those who have a special educational need
or disability, and colleagues have raised several striking case
studies of individual children and their circumstances from their
constituency case load or, in some cases, from their personal
family experience.
We support, of course, the provision of nutritious food in
schools so that pupils develop healthy eating habits and can
concentrate and learn, and free school meal provision is
important to that being achieved in schools. This Government have
extended eligibility for free school meals more than any other.
We spend over £1 billion a year delivering free lunches to the
greatest ever proportion of school children—over a third. That
one in three compares with the one in six who were receiving a
free school meal in 2010. That change came despite employment
being up by millions, unemployment being down by a million,
600,000 fewer children being in workless households, and the
proportion of those in work on low pay coming down substantially
since the introduction of the national living wage in
20215-16.
Free school meal provision includes 2 million pupils who are
eligible for benefits-related free school meals and a further
90,000 disadvantaged students in further education who receive a
free meal at lunch time. In addition, a further 1.3 million
infants in reception and years 1 and 2 receive a free meal under
the universal infant free school meal policy, which we introduced
in 2014. That helps to improve children's education and boost
their health, and it saves parents about £480 a year. We have
also introduced extensive protections, which have been in effect
since 2018, to ensure that while universal credit is being fully
rolled out, any family eligible for free school meals
transitioning to universal credit from the legacy benefits will
retain their entitlement to free school meals, even if they move
above the income threshold.
Pupils are eligible for benefits-related free school meals if
they or their parents are in receipt of one of the eligible
benefits and have submitted a request for meals. As colleagues
will know, schools have a duty to provide nutritious, free meals
to pupils who are registered with a state-funded school and meet
the eligibility criteria for free school meals. The provision
should be made for eligible pupils either on the school premises
or at any other place where education of those pupils is being
provided.
There are, of course, many pupils with special educational needs
and disability status that meet the eligibility criteria
necessary for free meals. The latest published statistics show
that 41.1% of pupils with an education, health and care
plan—known commonly as an EHCP—and 37.5% of pupils who are on
what is known as SEND support were eligible for free school meals
provision in 2023. Similarly, many children with disabilities but
not special educational needs will be eligible, and those rates
are higher than the overall proportion of pupils eligible for
free school meals in England.
The standard food offering provided by schools will, of course,
be suitable to the needs of many of these children. However, some
pupils with additional needs may require special food provision
or arrangements. Let me be very clear: all schools have duties
under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children
and young people, and they must make reasonable adjustments to
prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage. That means
that a school cannot treat a pupil unfairly as a consequence of
their disability.
For the provision of school meals, that could lead to schools
making reasonable adjustments to ensure that eligible pupils
could still access their entitlement. For example, a school could
let a pupil with sensory-processing issues go into the dinner
hall before other pupils, or it could appropriately tailor the
meal choices to the pupil’s particular needs. Schools do, of
course, do those things and are best able to understand the
individual children and the circumstances of their school.
We have published non-statutory guidance for schools to advise
them generally on their duties to make reasonable adjustments for
disabled pupils and to support them in doing so. I would also
note that, while schools are not obliged to make such adjustments
for pupils who are not disabled, many do work with pupils and
their families to accommodate a variety of needs. Working with
pupils to make adjustments to help them access food can, of
course, as a couple of colleagues have alluded to, also help to
improve attendance and behaviour. Further to that, we encourage
schools to work with parents and pupils to ensure that their food
provision adequately meets a diverse range of needs, so that it
can be enjoyed and benefited from by all.
(Bristol East) (Lab)
I thank the Minister for giving way. My involvement in this is
partly informed by constituents writing to me, but also as the
aunt of a child whose neurodiversity means that she has a
severely restricted diet, which is basically beige things and
chocolate. I know that my sister has had huge problems in trying
to ensure that she gets the right support at school, but I wanted
to ask specifically about the Food Standards Agency. As I
understand it, the FSA has been carrying out a review into
schools’ compliance with the national school food standards,
because there is very little information on the extent to which
schools do comply with those standards. Does the Minister also
see a role for the FSA in looking at whether schools meet that
criteria and are actually meeting the needs of SEND pupils in
terms of dietary needs?
Obviously the quality of school food is critical, and regulations
cover not only free school meals, in the sense of lunches, but
all food that is available during the school day—for example, in
breakfast clubs that schools provide and even in tuck shops. I
may get inspiration, but I think the standards cover up to 6 pm
in the evening for things going on during the school day.
When one talks about compliance with regulations, one has to
think differently about what is done at a system level and for
individual children. Candidly, I do not think that it is
realistic to say that you could have a regulatory agency that was
looking at every individual case of individual children and their
requirements in that particular school, but it is important that
we have those standards. If the hon. Lady would like, I would be
very happy, of course, to follow up with her separately.
That, in fact, brings me on to the point that I have in front of
me, which is that, where parents do have specific concerns that a
school’s legal obligations regarding their child are not being
met, those should be raised with the school in the first
instance, and subsequently, as necessary, with the academy trust
or local authority.
I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. I am simply making
the point that the absence of any reference in the guidance to
the legislation results in a situation of conflict—
I ask the hon. Lady only to be patient. That was a central point
made by the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby and clearly I
need to come on to it. To be straightforward and clear, we will
update our free school meals guidance to make reference to the
reasonable adjustments duty that is already set out in
non-statutory guidance published by the Department elsewhere, in
order to heighten awareness about reasonable adjustments, in
particular as it relates to meal provision among schools, local
authorities and families to support local solutions. That should
give parents clarity and something to point schools to when
discussing their child’s needs.
Where pupils have a medical condition that impacts their access
to food, section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places
a legal duty on schools to make arrangements to support pupils
with their medical condition. The accompanying statutory guidance
from 2015 included in the document “Supporting pupils at school
with medical conditions” sets out that governing bodies must have
regard to that guidance when carrying out the duty.
The guidance makes it clear that schools should ensure that they
are aware of any pupils with medical conditions and that they
have policies and processes in place so that those conditions can
be well managed. The guidance is also clear that that includes
how the processes will be implemented and the potential role of
individual healthcare plans in supporting pupils. The guidance is
clear that any individual plans should include consideration
of
“access to food and drink where this is used to manage their
condition”
and any “dietary requirements”.
Members also asked whether supermarket vouchers could be provided
in lieu of meals. The requirements for free school meals are
clear, such that eligible children should receive their free meal
either on the school premises or at any other place where
education is being provided. In some circumstances, it may be
appropriate to provide supermarket vouchers to parents in lieu of
meals. Equally, in other cases, it may be more appropriate for
other arrangements to be made, such as food parcels.
The exact nature of alternative arrangements will of course
depend on individual circumstances and should be determined case
by case. It is rightly up to schools to decide how the provision
should be made. We believe that they are best placed to
understand individual circumstances, their families and their
children, and to tailor their food provision accordingly.
Ultimately, the best and most nutritious option is typically for
children and young people to receive a hot and freshly cooked
meal at school. That is what our policy supports, while allowing
for alternative arrangements such as food parcels and vouchers to
be put in place where necessary.
It is a condition of free school meal eligibility that children
are registered with a state-funded school. Eligible pupils,
including those with special educational needs and disabilities,
are entitled to receive free meals. Some children are not able to
attend a school setting on a long-term basis or sometimes at all,
owing to their complex needs. It is right that the Government’s
high-level policy and funding framework leaves flexibility for
local responses to the complex needs of individual children.
The Department allocates high-needs funding to local authorities
to support the education and learning of children with special
educational needs and disabilities, and local authorities have
wide discretion over the use of that funding. We strongly
encourage parents of children with complex food needs to be in
touch with their school or local authority to discuss the support
available to them.
Will the Minister give way?
I will ask the hon. Gentleman to forgive me, because I want to
ensure that I get through and cover the points. If I end up with
more than a minute or two at the end, I will try to come back to
him, if that is all right.
(in the Chair)
Order. We also need to allow two minutes for to conclude.
Which makes it slightly less likely, but let us see how we get
on.
I am aware that concerns have been raised in relation to food
provision for the particular group of children we discussed
earlier: those with complex needs who are educated otherwise than
at school, commonly known—perhaps this is the point that the hon.
Member for Brighton, Kemptown was about to raise—by the acronym
EOTAS. Section 61 of the Children and Families Act 2014 allows
for local authorities to make special educational provision for
those children outside of a school setting. The latest published
school statistics show that as of January 2023, there are about
8,000 children and young people receiving EOTAS.
Of course, not all those children and young people would qualify
for free school meals under the benefits-related criteria. We
fund local authorities to support those children, and decisions
about exactly what is included in individual EOTAS packages
rightly fall to them. We therefore advise parents of children
receiving EOTAS to speak with the local authority if they have
concerns. I note the concerns that have been raised today about
food provision for children receiving EOTAS under section 61, and
I can confirm that my Department will review our published free
school meals guidance on that point. That will be available in
the spring. We will of course work closely with stakeholders,
including parents, to develop the guidance.
Free meal provision to eligible pupils with SEND is only a small
part of the overall package of support rightly provided in
recognition of the additional challenges faced by those children.
To illustrate that, funding for mainstream schools and high-needs
funding for children and young people with complex needs will be
more than £1.8 billion higher next year compared with this
financial year, and total schools funding will be £59.6
billion—the highest ever in real terms per pupil. Within that,
high-needs funding will be more than £10.5 billion in 2024-25,
which is an increase of more than 60% from 2019-20. That funding
will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs
of supporting children and young people with SEND.
I realise that I am short of time, so I will conclude because I
think the main points that the hon. Member for Liverpool, West
Derby would want me to come back to are the questions that he set
out, and I can reassure him on those points. On his specific
question about the holidays and activities fund programme and
breakfast programme, I ask him to give me more information so
that I can respond more fully in writing. I hope that on his main
questions about not creating new guidance, because it already
exists, but clarifying and communicating the guidance to schools
on reasonable adjustments for children with disabilities and to
local authorities about reflecting the need for food to be
considered in packages for EOTAS, he will take some reassurance
from what I have said. It remains only for me to congratulate and
thank again the hon. Gentleman and all Members who have taken
part in the debate.
(in the Chair)
With a hard stop when the clock says 6.19 pm, I call .
6.17pm
I thank the Minister and everybody else for speaking in the
debate. As was mentioned, it was over-subscribed, which will be a
comfort to all the campaigners and to Contact itself. I thank the
Minister for his response and for agreeing to update the current
free school meals guidance so that it will avoid any confusion
and make quite clear the duties of schools to make reasonable
adjustments under the Equality Act. I thank him for his comments,
and I will be keeping his feet to the fire. I will write to him
about the HAF, and our beady eyes will be watching the progress
of the commitments that have been made. We will be in constant
contact over the issue. I thank very much everybody who has
contributed.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered access to free school meals for
children with special educational needs and disabilities.
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