To wonder what will happen about the government's 'free' breakfast club proposal?!

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They have been talking a lot today about saving families £450 a year, but I just can't see how this is going to work?

They are paying 60p per child per day, which might pay for a Weetabix and a bit of toast, but doesn't take into account the staffing (and any energy costs) that this will require!

We already have a small school with a successful breakfast club running, with smallish numbers but all can sit down and eat together. Parents pay a reasonable amount for it and this pays for 1/2 members of staff, depending on numbers. If this was opened up to all parents as a free option, we simply wouldn't have enough space to put everyone in the hall-it would be mayhem.

The school budget doesn't have any spare cash in it for TA staffing costs (normally paid for by parents paying) so where are schools expected to find this money from?

With all due respect, TA roles are the easiest to fill (I hire TAs). People fall over themselves for the job.

So do I! It may be easy to fill in your school but that's certainly not the case everywhere!

My child's primary school has an outside company that comes onsite to provide paid for breakfast/after school club - they charge £7.50 for 7am-8.30am (and £12.50 for 3.15-6pm) so what would happen to the outside company would they only be pain 7-8am and the "free" school breakfast club then kick in 8am-8.30?

I don't need to use breakfast club as I start work at 9 but if it was free to drop off at 8 then I could increase my hours and start earlier - I'm a low earner so to pay for breakfast club £7.50 a day is currently not worth it for me plus my child eats at home so doesn't need the breakfast.

How is FSM for KS1 comparable? Was lunch simply not staffed before? It's not a can't do attriude, it's a realism and not being overly enthralled by the inevitable expectation for teachers to just take this on as an additional duty.

Aside from the obvious - there is no money to fund this extra childcare, schools simply can't find more money here, I'm concerned about the nutritional value of a bowl of cereal or a bagel. Feels poorly handled.

Being wealthy doesn't always mean a child is well fed. My Dads parents were well off, had a house gifted to them when married so no rent/mortgage, both worked full time. But it all went on alcohol, cigarettes and fancy food for my grandad. My Dad was lucky if he got a digestive biscuit for breakfast, and by 9 years old he was helping a milkman in the mornings to earn a little money to buy food for himself and his younger brother. A breakfast club would have been amazing for him.

I agree, but retaining TAs who work with some of the more challenging children is also difficult. Many TAs may fall over themselves for the job, but once they begin and they realise they are working with a child who runs off, hits them, kicks them, swears at them, all for minimum wage then the job is less attractive.

Aye it's not easy here anymore either. Funny enough with the advent of more wfh, flexible working etc people (mainly women let's be real) have realised they aren't as bound to taking a low paid job for school hours and holidays as once was the case. Lots of school budgets also have zero flexibility for any additional support staff.

Such a terrifyingly poorly thought out policy. I hope they reverse this idea before it gets fully rolled out.

@ParrotParty so by your calculations that's £36/ day for one class, that's extremely conservative and that would cost £7000 for the school year.

I’m not sure that the people it’s aimed at will benefit but I suspect those now paying for the school breakfast club where it already operates will choose the “free” option if they can

Where support staff (those that are left) have had a reduction in hours/pay they are unlikely to want to help in the breakfast club and I don’t blame them one bit

This policy is a significant reason why I voted Labour 'free breakfast clubs for everyone' Several of my daughters friends are single mums, they can't afford the clubs so can only do minimum wage jobs around school hours. Funded clubs would give them access to broader working opportunities and enable them to progress, hopefully eventually not need to claim UC, and build aspiration/reduce poverty trap. But nearly a year in, and there is no sign of this becoming universal. Our village is quite affluent, so won't be seen as an area of need, but there are deprived areas and people struggling with high rents etc, and not having funded clubs only deepens the wealth divide. We don't need it, but I can see the huge value it could bring to several families I know.

Breakfast clubs are ususlly staffed by TAs, Kitchen staff, Lunchtime Supervisors, even cleaners. Cleaners in primaries often end up with other jobs. Cleaners are often relief lunchtime supervisors, help in the kitchen, run breakfast club. It's the nature of these low-paid term time only jobs, usually staffed by women.

(The low-paid support staff issue is a different issue, and one that the riotous indignation here would be better aimed at solving. But it is a fact that support staff in schools are poorly paid snd yet are also highly sought-after roles)

The staffing of the breakfast clubs is the least difficult aspect of this to problem solve.

That isn't the case around here, staff know they can work elsewhere for less stress and more money. It's really difficult to find those willing and able to cover breakfast club.

I suppose we are all in our own bubbles. Staffing breakfast club has been an ongoing battle at the two schools ive been involved in breakfast club in and no one did it for free.

If breakfast club is only 30 mins, it is unlikely to find someone to do a job for 30 mins 5 days a week unless they are someone who is already a member of staff.
We struggle to appoint mid day lunch assistants as that is only 1 hour 30 mins, so unless there are staff willing to take on the breakfast club role then I think it would be difficult to recruit specifically for that role.

It still costs money however it is done, and seeing as where I am TAs are all being cut, I don't see who is going to run this.

Come on now, is 30 minutes in the morning going to mean they can work above min wage jobs all of a sudden?

That's terrible.

I hope your DD and her colleagues all refuse.

They are also paying approximately £24,000 lump sum per school on top of the 60p per child

Absolutely. Can that many parents really not be trusted to actually feed their child that they have to hand out bagels? Wtf

Where do private providers come into this? Where I live, the breakfast and after-school clubs are usually run by private companies on the school site. They are reasonably priced for parents on a decent wage who just need to get to work, but they're not really aimed at providing breakfast for kids in poverty. Do the government proposals see a role for these companies (e.g. subsidise them for taking poor pupils), or is it purely about getting school staff to dish out toast?

This is a terrible idea. We have a massive obesity issue in children yet we're feeding them additiinal food a good majority wouldn't need? Especially processed white bread.

Most parents actually bother to parent their children and ensure they have a balanced breakfast before they attend school. Even parents on the breadline and struggling should be able to do this as a minimum. I swear we're moving to a time where parents expect schools and other people to pick up the slack they're too lazy to do themselves.

Can you link to that? Is that a one-off payment? Annual? No matter whether the school has 60 pupils or 900?

I take it the teachers posting aren’t part of the 750 schools in the pilot?

it’s quite unique I think, that teachers always seem to think they need to know how anything in a school is going to work. In any other company they would be operational staff and would simply wait to be told. It’s a really weird set up to think you have to know (well in advance) when your position has no responsibility for implementing things.

I don’t notice it in other jobs

Because quite often teachers are expected to take on these new tasks unpaid.

Edited for typo.