Mounting pressure on Government to extend free school meals for October half term

Labour has put forward a motion calling for the provision of free school meals to be extended over each school holiday from October half term to Easter 2021. The opposition party has written to every backbench Conservative MP to highlight the issue and has promised to force a vote in today’s House of Commons debate.

According to new analysis by the House of Commons Library, around 900,000 children in England are living in areas subject to enhanced Tier 2 and Tier 3 restrictions and are set to lose access to free school meals over the holidays.

This will leave thousands of families facing a ‘double whammy’ as the October half term approaches – with incomes and jobs at risk, as well as vital support for children, Labour said.

Labour’s shadow children and early years minister Tulip Siddiq wrote to Conservative backbenchers on Monday, urging them to support the proposals.

Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labour Party, said, ‘This vote is about our values as a country and whether the Government, in the middle of this crisis, is happy to let our children go hungry.

‘Millions of families up and down the country are facing a bleak winter of real hardship as the furlough scheme is withdrawn and further restrictions are put in place without proper support for businesses, jobs and livelihoods.

‘It is a moral outrage that the Government will happily spend over £6,000 a day on consultants and line the pockets of Serco shareholders in return for a Test and Trace system that has collapsed whilst leaving almost a million children in areas subject to Tier 2 and Tier 3 restrictions to go hungry. 

‘No child in our country should be waking up hungry and having to face the day worrying where food might be coming from. But if Tory MPs don’t do the right thing today this vital support will be withdrawn next week and over 1.4 million children across our country will go hungry.’

Meanwhile, in a separate campaign, the England and Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford launched a petition last week, which has been signed by more than 300,000 people, calling on the Government to expand access to Free School Meals; provide meals and activities during holidays and to increase the value of the Healthy Start scheme.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said, 'With half term approaching, it is essential that the Government moves quickly to support low income families and those hardest hit by Coronavirus. Children who are hungry cannot learn as well as they might be able to. Free school meals at least guarantee that children get one nutritious meal a day. We must do all that we can to extend that entitlement to every child that is going hungry.'

Commenting on both campaigns, Deborah Lawson, assistant general secretary of Voice, the education section of the Community Union,  said, ‘We welcomed the Department for Education’s decision to fund free school meals in England over the summer holidays; the Welsh Government’s pledge to provide free school meals during the holidays until Easter next year, and funding for free school meals during school holidays in Scotland.

‘Now it’s time for England to follow the example of Wales and Scotland.’

She added, ‘It is vital that children who receive free school meals should be able to continue to benefit from this support, regardless of whether they are in school or at home. They should not miss out on something that is crucial to their health and wellbeing during the school holidays.

‘As Marcus Rashford has so rightly said, “If you feed children properly, you increase educational attainment, boost life chances and, therefore, cut costs in the long run”.’