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Food parcels
Food parcels for families await delivery in Milton Keynes. Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters
Food parcels for families await delivery in Milton Keynes. Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters

Schools in England told not to provide free meals at half-term

This article is more than 3 years old

DfE guidance sets government on course for fresh dispute over children going hungry during holidays

The government has once again become mired in a row over free school meals after it emerged that headteachers in England have been told not to supply vouchers and food parcels to disadvantaged children over the February half-term holiday.

With the dust barely settled following a furious row this week over substandard food parcels, council leaders and teaching unions expressed frustration at continuing confusion over free school meals and warned that children could go hungry.

Fresh guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) published this week states: Schools do not need to provide lunch parcels or vouchers during the February half-term.” Instead, it says, there is already wider government support available for families and children outside term-time through the Covid winter grant scheme.

The government set up the £170m winter package last November, following an earlier intervention by the footballer and anti-poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford, who has already forced the government into a series of U-turns over free school meals.

On Thursday night, Rashford wrote to Boris Johnson to demand that the government undertake an urgent cross-party review of the free school meals system. The letter, also signed by celebrity chef and school meals campaigner Jamie Oliver, said: “We are ready and willing to support your government in whatever way we can to make this review a reality and to help develop a set of recommendations that everyone can support. It is only by working together that we end child food poverty.” Other signatories include chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Tom Kerridge, actor Emma Thompson, and more than 30 charities and businesses.

Labour has also called for the current system of term-time school food parcels and vouchers to be scrapped and replaced by direct cash payments of £15 a week paid via the benefits system to the parents of pupils on free meals.

“The government should put its trust in parents by giving them the money for free school meals to ensure their children are not going hungry,” said Kate Green, the shadow education secretary.

The National Education Union (NEU) warned of a “logistical nightmare” for holiday provision and said disadvantaged families could end up missing out under the winter grant scheme as a result of the switch in provision via schools to councils.

Kevin Courtney, NEU joint general secretary, said: “It is simply astonishing that the government has, once again, revealed its total disregard for those hardest hit by the ongoing health pandemic … The ugly spectre of holiday hunger is now looming yet again.”

The Local Government Association (LGA) said the winter grant was never intended to replace free school meals and urged ministers to continue to provide food vouchers to eligible families during half-term.

Richard Watts, chair of the LGA’s resources board, said: “During the last full national lockdown, government recognised the significant extra pressures on low-income families and extended free school meal provision into the school holidays.

“Government was explicit that the Covid winter grant scheme [CWGS] was not intended to replicate or replace free school meals, but was to enable councils to support low-income households, particularly those at risk of food poverty as we moved towards economic recovery.

“Government should provide food vouchers to eligible families during February half-term as it did last summer, with councils using CWGS funding to provide additional support with partners where necessary.”

Courtney warned that transmission rates of Covid-19 were higher than ever and that chopping and changing between services increased the risk of children going hungry, with additional public health risks if parents had to venture out of the house.

“Suggesting that local councils will be able to recreate a brand-new system of supplying free school meals for the week of half-term using the Covid winter grant scheme is an unnecessary logistical nightmare, and the confusion and chaos this could cause will put millions of children at risk … Ministers should hang their heads in shame and unless they reverse this decision never again speak of their concern for disadvantaged children,” he said.

The row, so soon after an eruption of public outrage over miserly food parcels being distributed to children on free school meals, appeared to have caught No 10 off guard. Asked whether the voucher scheme would continue through half-term, the prime minister’s press secretary, Allegra Stratton, said: “That’s my understanding.”

A government spokesperson later clarified, however: “As was the case over Christmas, vulnerable families will continue to receive meals and other essentials over February half-term via councils through the £170m Covid winter grant scheme launched last year.

“Our guidance is clear: schools provide free school meals for eligible pupils during term time. Beyond that, there is wider government support in place to support families and children via the billions of pounds in welfare support we’ve made available.”

Tulip Siddiq, the shadow apprenticeships and lifelong learning minister, said: “Time and time again this government has had to be shamed into providing food for hungry children over school holidays. Stopping free school meals support over half-term will be devastating for many families who are living on the breadline in this pandemic.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “The government must urgently clarify for families how they will be helped during the upcoming half-term holiday so they can be assured that they will not go hungry. It is shameful that this is even something we are having to worry about in this country.”

Prof Greta Defeyter of Northumbria University, an expert on school food, also called for the national free school meal voucher system to be extended over half-term. “We are in an emergency situation. Vouchers are a safe and easy option and schools are best placed to know their families.”

More on this story

More on this story

  • ‘I can’t make them eat it’: Teachers and parents share school meal concerns in England

  • It won’t cost much to make free school meals a universal right

  • School caterers in England and Wales ‘facing a precipice’ as costs rise

  • ‘Cost of eating’ crisis: price of school lunches up by a third in parts of England

  • Number of UK children in food poverty nearly doubles in a year to 4m

  • London to offer free school meals to all primary pupils for a year

  • Public health groups urge Rishi Sunak to widen free school meals programme

  • Jamie Oliver calls for expansion of free school meals in England

  • UK must act over poverty, housing and equal rights, says UN body

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