to think £40 per week for food isn't too bad?

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

I was reading a news article about children in care and how care homes are managed. The staff are obviously very overworked and underpaid.

However one of the "issues" raised by a staff member was that they are only given £40 per week per child to feed them. I'm struggling to understand why this is seen as too little. We are a family of 4 adults and spend around £130 per week which also includes toiletIves, household items. pet food etc as well as food. And I think we eat pretty well.

The article seemed to say that the £40pw only had to cover food, not washing powder, loo roll etc. And presumably children in care get free school.meals.

I just felt the other salient points in the article were undermined by the complaint about £40pw per child,

Aibu to think that it's not an unreasonable
amount?

Does it include school lunches? My ds has just started secondary school and he spends £15-£18 a week on his lunches.

£40 does seem decent but I feel like I’d need more information to make an informed decision.
Is this the guardian you’re quoting? The article is about care homes failing to meet ofsted requirements, so there does seem to be bigger problems at the heart than just the food.

I’m pretty sure that’s wrong. I’m a foster carer and we are given a budget of £12.50 a week to feed an 18 yr old.

£40 isn’t actually that much either. School dinners are £15 a week which leaves £25. A takeaway or cafe meal or even a hot chocolate in Costa would then leave very little for food, and when living in a care home, staff will often want to take up out to give them individual time away from what can be quite a difficult environment.

Also, staff work on a shift basis and there simply isn’t the weekly planning for food because it’s not how things work - it’s done very much day to day in a lot of homes as YP move in and out quickly. It’s very simplistic to think a pack of weetabix and some lentil soup is going to be practical, many of the children have complex needs and food issues that cannot be managed easily in a group setting

£12.50 to feed an 18 year old. You must be way out of pocket on that amount

Yes @Sparklesocks it was The Guardian article. I just felt that they focused in on the wrong thing (£40 per week for food) rather than the bigger issues.

Surely if the reason the staff cant make the budget work is because of the way the work is organised and the lack of meal planning then that needs to be addressed first before increasing the budget?

I think most families spend far less than £40 per person on their weekly shop. Pretty sure looked after children automatically get free school meals, but totally bizarre if kids in government funded care homes don't (surely that can't be the case as it would make no sense). If it includes budget for taking children out then it won't stretch, but again that's probably a separate pot and this is just a really quite generous food budget. My cupboards would be exploding if I spent £80 just on a food shop for my 2, about £30 is far more realistic.

Children in care absolutely don’t qualify for free school meals.
Yes £12.50 is a ridiculous amount. I don’t think anyone fosters for a Local Authority for the money!

The difficultly comes from matching budget to food needs/Ofsted requirement about choice etc.
If you had an eight children home then it’s much easier to reach acceptable food standards within the budget. If, as many homes have, there is just one child then a forty pound budget is a bit of a challenge. Forty pounds to provide choice at every meal and a healthy diet is a tough ask.

I dont think £40 a week is an unreasonable amount per head. I take your point about lactose/gluten intolerance pushing the prices up, although those products are also available on prescription arent they?

I take your point about special diets being on prescription.

However a local primary school’s hot meals are delivered frozen and reheated in a special cooker. The company they use also supply local hospitals and care homes. The school charge per child is £2.80 where as another well known company who serves many adult care homes charge £3-5 a meal. Depending on who the supplier is the majority of their £5.71 budget could be used on one meal. Leaving half or less of their daily budget to pay for breakfast, lunch, and snacks.

By law schools have to ‘offer at least two portions of fruit and vegetables in each meal and potatoes, bread and other cereals are also readily available‘ so I would be very surprised if children’s Care Home doesn’t also have to offer the same.

Source article?

£40 a week when living alone was difficult 10 years ago, it'd be even harder now. Little children might eat less but teens probably eat even more than adults do.

Restrictions on where and how they shop could well come into it. If getting the food cheaper would take more a staff member's time it might not even be possible to do that and still meet legal requirements for the remaining staff at the home.

@safariboot. It's from The Guardian

Revealed: councils paid inadequate care homes £2.3m to house children

www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/26/revealed-councils-paid-inadequate-care-homes-23m-to-house-children?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

There are big issues in the care system.but I don't think the food budget is one of them.

young people who are possibly quite hard work and demanding wanting junk food or takeaways.

I’d rather think of them as young people who have generally been passed from pillar to post, who live with a high degree of uncertainty and who have no choice about who they live with or where they live. One of the very few things they can control is what they do or don’t eat, it’s not uncommon for looked after children to have difficulties with food. It may also be the case that food has been scare or chaotic in their home life and they can’t adjust to three meals a day - some of these young people will have never sat at a table to eat, not have used cutlery or had any care taken over their meals, junk food may be the only food they’re used to eating and so need a lot of support to cope with regular meals and meal times.

It’s not as simple as running a home kitchen, meal planning and everyone gets on with it. Before you get to the practicalities of an ever changing staff, working on a shift rota so the same person isn’t even cooking your food, the kids come with their own complexities - many of which are food related. £40 isn’t a huge amount to accommodate all of that.

Private, profit based children homes should be banned. The young people's needs come second to that of profit for the owner.

@Garbosdinner. I completely agree.

People on special diets dont get food on prescription anymore it was cut off a couple of years ago in many areas

Agree with Garbosdinner. The commodification of care is a huge social problem and the food issue is the tip of the iceberg.