AIBU to wonder why this isn't being rolled out to ALL children?

[CocacolaMum]

..and not just the under 7's! In reality I know it always comes down to cost but wouldn't it be a marvellous thing to know that all children are having 1 nutritious meal per day.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24132416?SThisFB

I'd rather disabled people were going to be able to keep their benefits.

I'd rather the NHS had a bit more funding.
I'd rather social care budgets weren't slashed.
I'd rather they'd stop making people commit suicide over fear of losing their home and abolish the bedroom tax.
I'd rather they'd stop pretending they are doing this for the good of the children and admit they are buying votes!

1 nutritious meal per day. IN my experience ( teacher in a number of schools) school dinners are as nutritious as a ready meal. They taste, look and smell like ready meals. Cheap meat, cheap everything. Horrible.

This really hacks me off,I have 3 in KS2, sahp.

Why are rich families getting yet more money given to them?

Oh and the odd times mine have them for a treat there is never anything left for ks2, it's going to be a lot worse now I suspect.

I don't agree with this. I think FSM should be means-tested.

As to criminals paying for their board, how are they supposed to make money to do so?

I'd rather all of those things were funded too, littlemisswise- however, I think schools should receive enough funding to provide a good meal for every pupil as well.

I'm glad it's not just me who think this is a waste of money. I and lots of others can afford to feed my children and don't want free school dinners. Where are they finding the money? How much are they allowing per child? I can only imagine the awful food that will be dished up.

Will children still be allowed packed lunch if they want it?

People who need help already get it so what is the point ?

Euphemia I don't doubt t tastes good but I'd say that menu was pretty crap tbh!

I could choose a week of menus like this;
Mon- Tomato pasta, chocolate sponge and custard
Tue- fish fingers and pasta, sponge cake
Wed- pizza, ice cream with sauce
Thu- vegetable nuggets, roast potatoes, caramel flan
Fri- sausage roll, chips, fruit salad

How can that possibly be considered a balanced diet?! Way way too much wheat and too much processed food and sugar.

See I chalky think its quite a good idea but if our menu is anything like that, DD will be going to school with a packed lunch regardless!

Sorry... actually think

In DD's school, they are still allowed to take a packed lunch if they want to.

But whilst all those things aren't being funded, IMO it is wrong to waste £600 million on this scheme.

Agree with Retropear

Dd had school dinner last Friday. It was fish fingers (assume cheap and nasty), chips (assume frozen), baked beans and arctic roll. Why do the government seem so hooked on the idea that school dinners every day are so great for the health of the nation? Yes, if you can't afford to feed your children, FSM are good, but this is such a waste of money that has been taken from people who really need it.

Ds's school, on the other hand, has a proper chef and a vegetable garden and proper healthy filling delicious meals with homemade bread every day. But they won't be free, because it's a junior school...

Agree with retropear also.

Now, with those extra ££ left over, those people wont mind 5p on the top rate of tax. Its not like their children will go hungry and there is probably some spare after £150,000.

Free prescriptions for all actually saves money as its is very simple to administer.

If you have means tested prescriptions then you have to have admin working out who is eligible, issuing certificates, checking every prescription to make sure has been paid for properly. The admin costs for that must be huge.

I suspect that the same would apply to school meals, each unit price is pretty low, it would increase uptake so would probably lower the unit price (economies of scale) and would cut out a vast amount of costly admin, as well as removing the whole free school meal stigma.

If they have got £600million lying around to spend on education then spend it on repairing some of the appalling buildings. Buy some more text books, get some more equipment or heaven forbid employ some more teachers. Don't waste it, and there will be a lot of waste, by spending it on food that lots of people can afford and many don't want!

I am so confused by this govt. Take away child benefits, introduce bedroom tax and reduce overall benefits by claiming poverty then introducing unnecessary schemes like this. This gets my goat as much as the bonkers free prescriptions in Scotland.

Dear 'Dave' - please could you ask the left hand to talk to the right hand and start having some consistency in your approach. Otherwise it just looks like random policy madness.

I really worry that this sort of policy embeds the idea of reliance on the state into children.

It only takes the actions if a few unregulated banks to completely fuck the economy and our response is free poor quality, portion controlled politicised meals for a strata of children decided by unknown criteria and funded in a way where the money could be used for something else anyway determined at a local level.

Utterly ridiculous.

Harrumph.

All the other policies the Tories have shat out of their arse don't make this a flawed concept though. It is right to be asking questions about where the funding is coming from when they're feeding us the 'coffers are empty' line, but their poor funding decisions do not make free school meals for all children a bad idea IYSWIM.

I breathed a massive sigh of relief when I heard this. We're a low income family, but not low enough to receive free school dinners. This will be a massive help for us. I guess if you can afford it you should donate the equalivent money to the school to be used on other resources. I doubt many would though.

our school tried it (scotland) when dd1 was in primary it didnt work as the budgets didnt go far I would rather they spent the money on the children who needed it the parents who can afford dinners should pay, and also the quality would go down IMO, maybe free fruit or milk for all kids but not meals , and with 3 different governments in the Uk it isn't up to westminster to decide,

Our junior school has 2 cooks and almost everything prepared on site. Teachers eat from this menu (as have I on open lunch days). Some of the puddings are stodgy but there is always fruit alternative. Last week dd1 had ham salad and dd2 had vegetable ravioli when there was also fish and chips on offer.

I like universal benefits as you cut out huge admin costs etc

ItsAllGoingToBeFine - having run a food business, the uncertainty of how many units are going to sell is a key issue in making the whole thing viable and cost effective, as well as the economies of scale.

A school where all children have FSMs would win on both.

This is a stupid idea.

Those that need FSM get them already, even of those some parents choose to send their DCs with a packed lunch.

We tried DS1 on school meals, he hated them and would only eat a mouthful or two and then pudding.
If I send him with a packed lunch then he has a wholemeal bread sandwich of cheese, tuna mayo, ham, roast beef and some fruit. Much, much healthier.

menu here