Southwark - free school meals for all primary pupils

[meditrina]

Link.

It's to fight obesity, by making sure all children get one healthy mean a day.

It's going to cost about £8m a year, at a time when the council needs to cut about £60m.

Is this the right move at the right time?

Sorry, I might have got one of the figures wrong - Southwark is seeking to find £34m cuts.

Evening Standard article and interesting discussion here.

I think it could be a great help for families struggling with the 'cuts' in general. The current criteria for free schools meals exclude parents working, even those on crap wages, who are probably feeling the pinch atm. and student parents who may be really poor too.

I would worry about the day centres etc closing but it seems like everything is tough decisions and cuts, cuts, cuts.

I live in the borough of Islington which also funds free school meals for primary pupils (my DC both had gone to secondary by the time the policy was implemented).

I don't see it as fair as there are so many wealthy families in the borough who are able to pay, and those on the lowest incomes would always have got them free anyway - yet they are suffering from the cuts which might not have needed to be so severe if the council hadn't funded this scheme. I don't think it makes any difference to obesity, if the wealthy families weren't getting school meals they'd have nutritious organic packed lunches instead (which often cost more than school dinners).

what is the uptake like in Islington warner?

do your kids have the free meals? are they good?

An utterly idiotic decision - universal school meals are unjustifiable even in times of plenty, let alone a time when there are so many higher priorities.

Nevertheless, it is perfectly understandable. Children are impressionable; Labour councils desperately want to get them addicted to unnecessary state largesse early.

Wonderful.

I live in Southwark and am really disgusted at this.

Not sure. I don't know how "normal" free school meals work - who is eligible, how you apply etc

Having looked at my council website, it says what southwark are doing is illegal

voila

"Entitlement to free school meals is a national benefit and Barnet Council has no discretion to extend this to other families who do not qualify. In law, only children from families in receipt of certain benefits and those being supported under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 are eligible for free school meals. "

baffled now

SardineQueen - councils have no legal right to extend centrally funded free school meals to others. But I'm pretty sure there is no law that prevents people (or a council) from setting up their own program to give food to a group of people.

That makes sense, even if my lot seem to be implying something else entirely...

Maybe the additional children won't be getting FSM under the national provision, but rather Council-paid meals - then the FSM numbers can still be counted and used in the same way as social indicators, but every child gets to eat without paying?

I'm surprised they're rolling it out now. When googling it, I found several references to a pilot in selected schools from Jan-Jul this year; they appear to have made the decision when it's only half way through.

There may be good reasons that southwark have done this. Off the top of my head, things like

• People who ought to apply, not knowing or not being able to cope with the paperwork
• Costs of admin very high so it makes sense to make it universal (possible if they have a very high takeup in the borough)
• Concern that children who would benefit have parents who can't be arsed to apply because they just don't care
• Concern for children whose parents are not on qualifying benefits but who nonetheless are living in a situation where one good meal a day would be hugely beneficial

Without the stats it's hard to say whether they're nuts or not.

in newham all primary kids et free meals, the take up is very hih.

With the increased takeup they will benefit from economies of scale.

Children whose parents are being squeezed on low incomes will be sure of getting a full and healthy meal at least once a day.
Children whose parents are on high incomes but dont make good lunches will benefit (perhaps the parents are very stressed).
Long term, this makes sense - all the children will benefit from better nutrition and better health - which is a long term effect.
There will be no 'stigma' to taking free school meals.

My sister teaches in Southwark. The children (3&4) arrive hungry and she is pretty sure some just have a packet of biscuits in front of the TV for tea.

Of a the things a council can spend money on, this is pretty important.

Ours spend 3.5m on some plastic flowers next to the motorway

At school, I knew kids who had a packet of crisps for breakfast, and a sandwich containing just one thin slice of reformed ham with another pack of crisps for lunch. This was at secondary but it was clear they had never known a proper lunch. These kids were already overweight at the age of 12 :(

Plastic flowers!?!

I agree that free school meals (and hence good, healthy nutrition for all primary children) is one of the best investments a council could make.

I know some schools that have done this and ended up saving money as less admin, guaranteed amounts of food eaten meant caterers could get better deals on ingredients, no need to chase up food for kids who hadn't brought their lunch, and possibly better behaved kids and more supportive parents (gut feelings of the staff, hard to measure).

I'd be for it.

Well
The council would say it's Public Art and they do light up at night.

I don't agree with increasing state dependency but can think it might cost less. Ii dread to think how much staff time is wasted, chasing after and counting up constant dribbles of money. I pay for school meals with a termly cheque (although appreciate not evetyone can do that.)

"There will be no 'stigma' to taking free school meals."

Yes, that's a significant benefit, IMO, because if only asylum seekers and those who are eligible for benefits get them, it becomes very clear when dinner money is collected (though it is a long time since I had free school meals when my mum was widowed).

"they do light up at night."

Where is this, please, NT ?

Did they take a kicking from the local press/radio when this was approved ?