From today (22 April), free breakfast clubs will open in 750 primary schools across England providing 30 minutes of childcare a day, as part of the Government’s plan to tackle child poverty, as well as improve children’s educational attainment.
The breakfast club initiative is taking places alongside the wider work of the Child Poverty Taskforce, which is expected to report in June.
According to ministers, 67,000 of the 180,000 pupils set to benefit come from the most disadvantaged areas of England.
The Department for Education said that the breakfast clubs could mean parents will be able to save up to 95 extra hours and £450 a year if their child went every day.
It said that the rollout of school breakfast clubs delivers on the government’s manifesto promise to ensure state schools offer free breakfast clubs to all pupils, while supporting its Plan for Change to ensure tens of thousands more children start school ready to learn.
Keir Starmer said that breakfast clubs would ‘put more money’ into parents’ pockets and make their lives easier.
‘The rollout of free breakfast clubs is a truly game-changing moment for families in this country. They mean parents will no longer be hamstrung by rigid school hours and have the breathing space they need to beat the morning rush, attend work meetings and doctors’ appointments, or run errands. And crucially, it means better life chances for children.
‘By making these clubs free and universal, we’re doing something that previous governments have never done. We’re going further and faster to deliver the change working families deserve. That’s the change this government was elected to deliver.’
Meanwhile, the chief executives of 12 charities, have written to the prime minister warning that if the two-child limit is not scrapped in the government’s child poverty strategy, child poverty will be significantly higher at the end of this parliament than when the government took office.
The charities include those have supported the work of the government’s Child Poverty Taskforce, include Child Poverty Action Group, Citizens Advice, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Save the Children UK, Barnardo’s, Trussell, The Children’s Society and Action for Children.
In their letter to the prime minister, they said, ‘Ensuring that fewer children are in poverty at the end of this parliamentary term than at the start will require a direct investment in family incomes via the social security system. As the bare minimum, this must start with scrapping the two-child limit and the benefit cap.’
It adds, ‘Scrapping the two-child limit is by far the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty. It would lift 350,000 children out of poverty overnight and result in 700,000 children living in less deep poverty.
‘If it is not scrapped, the stark reality is that child poverty will be significantly higher at the end of this parliament than when the government took office, making this the first time a Labour government would leave such a legacy.’
Read the letter to the prime minister in full below.
Dear Prime Minister,
As parliament returns from recess, we are writing to welcome your ongoing personal commitment to reducing child poverty – made clear at the recent Liaison Committee hearing – and to share our high expectations for the forthcoming child poverty strategy.
Our respective organisations work with and represent children and families across the UK. We know that the strategy has the potential to make a crucial difference to the daily lives and life chances of children up and down the country. As you know, an ambitious and properly resourced strategy will also be central to supporting your government’s aims to break down barriers to opportunity, raise living standards and improve school readiness. There can be no road to sustainable national growth unless child poverty reduces at scale and at pace.
4.5 million children in the UK currently live in poverty. CPAG analysis shows that this will reach 4.8 million by 2029 unless urgent action is taken.1 The task of reducing child poverty will be made even harder by planned cuts to disability benefits.
Ensuring that fewer children are in poverty at the end of this parliamentary term than at the start will require a direct investment in family incomes via the social security system. As the bare minimum, this must start with scrapping the two-child limit and the benefit cap. The two-child limit pushes more and more children into poverty every day and will act as a brake on any other action taken by government to reduce poverty. The benefit cap pushes 300,000 children into deep poverty at a time when their parent’s capacity to work is limited. Neither policy is compatible with the ambition to raise living standards.
Scrapping the two-child limit is by far the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty. It would lift 350,000 children out of poverty overnight and result in 700,000 children living in less deep poverty. If it is not scrapped, the stark reality is that child poverty will be significantly higher at the end of this parliament than when the government took office making this the first time a Labour government would leave such a legacy, and the number of children living in poverty will be at its highest since records began.
The strategy will also need to set targets to reduce child poverty over the next 10-20 years, laying the foundations for further policy interventions to tackle child poverty across different parts of government, and helping to maintain focus throughout this parliament and beyond.
We have seen strong leadership from the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Education, and thorough engagement from the Child Poverty Unit. As we approach the conclusion of the spending review and the publication of the child poverty strategy, the opportunity to deliver the real change that children, families and the country needs must now be taken.
We look to your personal leadership to deliver this change and to direct the full weight of your government into reducing child poverty with urgency, with investment in family incomes, ambitious targets, and with a public narrative about why it matters so much to your vision for the country. We stand ready to support you in making this vision a reality.
Paul Carberry, Chief Executive of Action for Children
Anna Feuchtwang, CEO of National Children's Bureau
Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group
Joseph Howes, CEO of Buttle UK and Chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition
Paul Kissack, Chief Executive, JRF
Baroness Anne Longfield, Executive Chair and Founder of Centre for Young Lives
Moazzam Malik, CEO of Save the Children UK
Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice
Lisa Pearce, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Gingerbread
Lynn Perry MBE, CEO of Barnardo’s
Emma Revie, CEO of Trussell
Mark Russell, Chief Executive of The Children's Society
