Would giving all children free school meals actually safe the public purse money long term?

[Kendodd]

Really good quality, highly nutritional, tailored to children's needs and vegetarian. I know this would cost a lot, but if it improves the nations health long term, would it actually cost less?

@Vettrianofan I didn't say it was a magic wand that would cover childcare for all at all times. It wouldn't help me on the days i start work early. I live about an hour from a big city, so it wouldn't help any of the parents who work there and need to commute either. Just that it would help some. Plus I think the bigger benefit is for the children that aren't too hungry to learn.

So 25% are not.

That's terrible! My daughter has coeliac disease, thankfully gluten free diets are well understood and catered for where I am. Most days the school lunch is GF anyway, and on the days it isn't she always gets a proper GF alternative, and all the children with allergies get trays to limit cross contamination from crumbs on the tables (they took trays away from everyone at the beginning of the school year, because of the electricity costs from washing them I guess, but gave them back to the children with allergies after one coeliac girl got a reaction from crumbs on the table)

That said, at my school they accidentally labelled the normal spinach pancakes as GF ones but luckily I thought they looked to good to be GF and double checked before taking!

It’s unaffordable. Taxes would need to go up
Vegetarian only would be the only affordable way and hopefully as they would be eating it from the day they start school they would be used to it.
It also means less wastage and not having to provide so many options hence less cost in production too.

But overall, it’s too expensive.

Last year we spend £1.4bn on fsm (means tested and ks1). To extend to all up to year 11 would cost an additional £2.5bn.
Consider that the NHS budget was £180bn, is it really too expensive?

Yabu for saying vegetarian

Oh Emma, give it a rest @blackpanth You’re like a broken record. 😅

Can't see how that would be much use. Mine have school dinners anyway, ours are actually alright, but also I don't see any reason to think school are better qualified than I am to decide what's an appropriate packed lunch for my DC. Nor have I any interest in getting budgeting advice from them. If they're banning an item, like if they have to go nut free or whatever, fine, just send a notification home. Rather use the money on something that will actually be engaged with.

Well, for those who are raging at the notion of ensuring teenagers get fed, they can be reassured that FSM provision is being removed again - the transitional protection that ensured eligibility for FSM for the duration of a school phase is being removed and it's going back to only being available (outside the infants/the vote winners) to far lower incomes and not being fixed for their entire time in one phase. So if somebody works, they'll automatically have too much money to pay for them. And if there's a glitch in their benefits, they'll automatically lose them.

It also means that schools will lose thousands in pupil premium, as that FSM entitlement means that they receive additional funding from the local authority.

Say hello to kids going hungry again in the summer term of 2025. And schools even more broke than they are already in trying to plug the gaps in welfare and attainment.

If you don't like my comments just don't comment and I'm allowed to have an opinion 🤣 and you can see loads of here have the same one

On*

Meant to say keep scrolling*

If you have a child then the absolute minimum you are required to do is provide food for it. Parents should fund food not school.

We need a complete rethink on education and meals in school, this is so inspiring

m.youtube.com/watch?v=0qY6KIortCc

It will be available till the end of the school stage a child is at in March 2025. It doesn't end in 2025. If you are in reception or year 7 it won't end until 2031 or 2029 if in year 7 in 2025 and you leave school in year 11.

The food actually has to be consumed. Kids don't get very long in the lunch hall to be able to eat and even then lots don't eat all their meal. I'm on a group for disney and the amount of British parents with children that are fussy eaters or only eat plain foods like chicken nuggets is unreal. A poster from another European country commented on it and got villified and before you say it not all kids have sen.

We are in Scotland and my kids opt for a packed lunch despite the universal free school meals for kids of their age. The vegetarian options consist of meat substitutes which they don't like.

If you are talking about England then surely they could look at Scotland and see if it is actually having any benefit long term what the uptake is like and the levels of waste and whether it actually helps kids overall.

It would be wonderful for neglected secondary school children who aren't sent in with any lunch money. Unlike primary school, that goes unnoticed

Nobody brings money in, it is all on account, and clearly recorded what money each child has, and what they spend it on - I have a few that eat nothing but kitkats.

@notknowledgeable I didn't realise that all schools had moved to a cashless system. That's good.

I think you might be ignoring the potential savings from this. If good food improves health then that would safe money long term? Also you say taxes would have to go up, but parents would be savings on lunch money. If we are going to invest in anything in this country, we'll what would be more important than our kids health. It's all very well saying parents should feed kids better, well plenty are feeding them crap or not feeding them at all, for whatever reasons.

I've spoken to people who have run school kitchens, the problem is by the time kids have started school, many are set into habits of eating so poorly they won't eat proper food if they haven't had it at home.

Though, I do also know children who have had feckless parents who haven't fed them particularly well, who's bones have broken very easily and repeatedly... the parent said something about poor nutrition being the reason.

So could save the NHS money, potentially the benefit system money, eventually BUT just like another thread here, when will parents start to take responsibility of their children?

There would be no time for 1000+ kids to eat a served meal at secondary school. The queues are massive already and lunchtimes are often only 30 minutes long.

Yes it is.
Or maybe benefits for those who receive them ieUC could be cut to allow for the free school meals, the kids would get a healthy meal but in losing part of the benefits it wouldn’t cost so much
The cost of sorting that out would be excessive too though
Plus There would be an absolute uproar. Weird suggestion anyway
So a non starter, back to it being too expensive and…..

……At some point responsibility for children's health needs to fall on the parents. Not constantly the state
Or maybe parents just birth children. The state can do everything else

Of course it is.
Parents should be feeding kids not the tax payers constantly.

Free school meal provision is being reduced again anyway because there’s no money. It won’t be extended further.

My children had to have school meals. They were not allowed packed lunches.
If all schools do the same and they provide only healthy food. No crap, no chips, sponge pudding, ice cream etc etc etc.

Then the future population could be healthier
That doesn’t mean it is free. Parents still pay. Just because it’s healthy shouldn’t mean it has to be free.

Then someone needs to educate the parents who feed their children the unhealthy stuff for all the other meals

We are in London, so school switched to free school meals for everyone. Now DS and friends all want packed lunch becuse the meals are over-cooked/ burnt. Facilities just aren't set up for suddenly feeding all the kids. When the kids then won't eat it, it's a waste of money.

In principle I agree with all kids getting a free meal when needed, but maybe better to focus that on simple breakfasts, milk and fruit and implement carefully so schools can actually cope.