Free breakfast clubs for ALL primary school children? Why?

[Safi7]

I’ve been overseas since the election so a bit out of the loop, but is it true that Labour are going to make it standard that all primary schools must now offer free breakfasts to all children, regardless of need?

Fair enough for children from deprived families - but all children?

Where is the money for this coming from?

Are Labour actually saying that in 2024, its now to much to expect parents to actually bother to feed their own children breakfast? This responsibility can just be pushed onto schools instead - as if they haven’t got enough on? Teachers are leaving in droves as it is. Du much is out in them - the jobs is becoming more like social work in too many cases. Who will staff these breakfast clubs and make sure kids are actually eating?

Surely this is just encouraging lazy parenting - ie parents who can well afford cereal / toast / eggs etc it but just won’t bother if their kids can eat at school instead. Plus children will be dumped at school earlier than necessary, just because parents can now get away with it?

Surely it’s better to direct resources where they are actually needed, rather than turn schools into free cafes? Makes no sense.

Is the OP Jacob Rees Mogg?

The government should be focusing on making it affordable to be a SAHP alongside these measures to benefit working parents it should be an equal choice

There are plenty of people who are living in poverty and who are not entitled to benefits for one reason or the other. But it doesn't mean they are not struggling. Having that extra help makes a world of difference and will help make ends meet.

I suspect though, the other reason is to help working parents get in on time.

Maybe the people staffing the breakfast club don’t have kids, or have kids at that school, or their kids are teens or grown up!

Doubt it. He thinks food banks are a good thing. I expect OP would disagree - we don’t want anyone to get something for nothing, do we?

Breakfast club is not just about food! When will people learn?

It costs £6.50 per day in my children's school. I'm not skint by any means, but that's too much to pay in addition to after school club. Parents need to work, and lower paid workers are more likely to be doing shifts.

There have been numerous other reasons why breakfast club helps children:
Those with social anxiety
Those who don't have a nut tripod breakfast
Those who don't want to eat straight away

How do you suggest they do this then?

Because many children turn up to school hungry, because children learn better when they are not hungry and because its much easier to run and better for children emotionally if it is a universal offer, no one is singled out, running means tested offers always lead to children who need help missing out.
It's not compulsory parents don't need to take it up if they don't want to.
and it is being paid for by making rich non doms pay tax like everyone else.

I’m wondering too. I bet we never get an answer.

And pointless, considering the vast majority of children cannot be engaged in active learning for the ~5 hours they are already in lessons, let alone more than that.

increase child benefit
lift the 2 child UC child element limit
make maternity pay/leave more/longer (if wanted)
make carers allowance non means tested so there’s no weekly earnings threshold which could help parents who are carers back to work if they felt able
regulate home education a register and more checks to ensure the education is suitable and full time but also if a parent complies with these checks they can , if they are on UC and want to , have their work commitments removed

These days card systems are used and it's anonymous. You don't need to make stuff free for everyone to avoid stigma any more.

Absolutely none of these things would replace the salary I get paid to go out and work which is required to keep our household solvent and running but okay….

Libraries are a weekly event for us. Honestly if you aren't bothering to feed your children you aren't taking them to library trips are you?

And if their parents can't/won't don't? Should those children go without?
Governments have a responsibility to care for the most vulnerable and children are some of the most vulnerable in society

I remember a Tory minister being asked what they were doing about the cost of living crisis and she actually named Food Banks as an example!! It was very Black Mirror.

so have at it, I don't care! LOL

This kind of response is so immature. How old are you? Did you stick your tongue out as you typed it?

But it wouldn’t be to replace that as your choice I assume is that you want to work ? But it gives choices to others in various different situations

You think people can’t be bothered to feed their children? Seriously?

It means they get their children out of the house earlier, don’t have to feed them themselves, don’t have to pay for it themselves, don’t have to talk to them, don’t have to wash up.

It’s off loading more onto schools. Some people have kids but shouldn’t and are not good parents. But those kids still need feeding and raising.

The children themselves may feel happier at school and even if it’s toast and cereal that’s better than nothing or sweets or a bag of crisps. Yes I’ve seen that.

It’s also free childcare for parents who need to leave earlier.

I personally think it’s sad but the morals of who should and shouldn’t have kids won’t be solved on MN so not worth the discussion. Waste of time.

It’s not my choice I need to work to earn a salary to keep a roof over my kids heads and feed them because we cannot afford to do it on one salary and neither can the vast majority of households in this country.

Ds school offer a free breakfast club (state secondary). When DS started I wasn’t working but upon discussion with the school we decided it was best for him to go into breakfast club. He has high levels of needs and the calmer start of breakfast club helps him settle, he can avoid the hustle outside school and can be in and settled. It gives him a chance to talk to staff if needed before the day starts.

he is tube fed so he doesn’t actually eat at breakfast club but he very much benefits from it and I am 100% his school attendance would be much lower if it wasn’t for it. Him being settled in school has also meant I have been able to return to work.

There are so many reasons why a child may benefit from the breakfast club provision

Do you rent ? Renting is another big problem with the hugely expensive rents charged by some landlords if that was addressed that would also help a lot of people and drive down the UC credit bill as some housing element payments are extortionate

No I have a mortgage you just live in cloud cuckoo land with no idea how the actual world works.

A lot of us have to work to pay our mortgage and cost of living stuff like nutritious food and warm clothing for our children. (Edit to say the government will never offer help to pay our mortgage)