Prime Minister urges Lancashire schools to sign up to breakfast club offer
The initiative enables parents to drop their children off at school early, where they will be given their first meal of the day.
Dozens of primary schools across Lancashire will be eligible for government funding to set up free breakfast clubs for their pupils next year – and the Prime Minister has made a direct appeal to them to take up the offer.
The initiative enables parents to drop their children off at school early, where they will be given their first meal of the day before the bell officially rings for the start of lessons.
The first phase of a promised national rollout of the scheme takes place next April – when 89 schools in Lancashire will be able to start offering the service if they choose. They have been selected because at least 40 percent of their pupils receive free school meals – or because they are the most disadvantaged school in a particular area.
Fourteen of the county’s schools are already providing free breakfast clubs after taking part in a trial which has been running ahead of the forthcoming expansion.
Sir Keir Starmer told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he believed that the initiative – which it is estimated will save families up to £450 per year in food costs and give them back 95 hours of time – would be a “game-changer”.
“The more we can encourage schools to come forward…I think it will really make a difference,” the Prime Minister said.
“All the evidence is that if children have had a decent breakfast, they are much more likely to be able to learn – and obviously that’s a game changer for them, because their life chances depend on that, usually from a pretty young age.
“It does also help parents and carers – being able to drop off their children early and then get back to work a little bit earlier does mean they could do slightly longer hours.
“And of course, the fact that it’s a free breakfast…means that that’s an expense that parents don’t have to provide anymore.
“When we talk about the cost of living, there’s a human element here, which is families that will be struggling to make ends meet. I was in that position when I was growing up – we, as a family, didn’t have enough money to pay all of our bills and I know how that makes you feel,” Sir Keir added.
Many schools already offer paid-for breakfast clubs. Asked by the LDRS whether the free scheme – which is eventually to be extended to all primary schools – should be means-tested so that all families benefit from the time it provides, but only those who need it receive the indirect financial support the initiative offers, the Prime Minister said the focus on disadvantaged schools during the first phase of the rollout meant that there was “an element of targeting going on already”. He said the scheme was first being delivered to those schools that “probably need it more” than others.
Dozens of schools nationwide – including at least one In Lancashire – withdrew from the early adopter trial, claiming that the funding provided was insufficient.
The government has now increased the per-child funding rate for mainstream schools to £1 – and schools will also receive a guaranteed £25 a day to cover staffing and administration costs. The Department for Education (DfE) says that for an average school with a 50 percent take-up of a breakfast club, the total funding package has increased by 28 percent.
Sir Keir told the LDRS he believed that the funding was now “adequate” – and urged eligible Lancashire schools to apply. They will find out whether they have been successful in mid-January.
The government says evidence gathered during the trial phase shows more than one in three parents find it difficult to give their child a healthy breakfast before school, with fussy eating (36 percent) and time (28 percent) being the main barriers.
Among children aged 5-7, breakfast clubs have been proven to boost average attainment by the equivalent of two months’ progress in maths, reading and writing, the DfE says.