Free school meals for all infant children

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What do you think? I think it's a great idea.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24132416

Some LAs do this anyhow (Southwark, I think, and it's a Labour council).

I don't know if the trial is still running and if it was deemed a success.

I think it is madness.

People with cerebral palsy being told they might get better so they can go to work, people who can not feed themselves or walk or talk being told to prove they are unable to work. Thousands of genuine disabled people about to lose DLA.

There is warning of a crisis coming this winter in the NHS. If you are in hospital and need 3 meals a day, the chances of one being edible is slim. Not enough nurses, doctors or HCAs to look after you. Waiting lists getting longer.

Servicemen and women overstrecthed so tours of duty are becoming longer. Kit is poor and not reliable.

Social care budgets are being cut.

Older children are not going to Uni because they can not afford it because if the rise in tuition fees and living costs.

I could go on. Does the Government address them? No, they give people, many who can afford them free school meals. It is buying votes, nothing more.

DS1 will be in Y3 in Sept so it wouldn't apply anyway but his school and external supplier have proved repeatedly unable to provide an ingredients list for their meals (he has multiple allergies) so will be on packed lunches forever.

I might take them up for DS2 but then he just wants the same as DS1 and I can make two pack-ups as easily as one.

Frankly I'd rather have CB back!

No way, ridiculous, yes to free meals if you are elligible, but not otherwise. Why is government paying for meals and giving out child benefit. Big fat no

And what about dietary requirements. Are they going to train all the staff on vegetarian/vegan/gluten free etc meals and how to handle the food?

Thousands of pounds of extra equipment and training there before its even rolled out.

Or do the poor kids get stuck with a plain jacket and some salad? Yes highly nutritious every single day

I am pleased about this but the menus need an over haul. Dh and I were just discussing this. Cost here is £2.10 a day. Dd loves a hot meal but its become expensive especially as some days there is not enough food provided to the school and last Monday dd ended up with plain spaghetti, grated carrot and a bread roll! Hardly worth £2.10!

Ds will benefit from this though as he starts school 2015.

My sisters children qualify for FSM but she sends dcs with pack lunch.
I do feel its the middle income families (17-26k) that lose out on lots. We earn £22k before tax etc so real income is about £17k and that's with both of us working 40 hours. I can't afford for dd to have school dinners and I can't afford prescriptions so don't go to docs or dentist so I haven't been for over 7 years!

I agree with whoever said raise the threshold so more children qualify who don't now, and whose families struggle.

Subsidising those already fully capable of paying for these things without even noticing? Why?

Nick Clegg offering something free for students? Free Nutrition fees sounds like a familiar promise!! eveningharold.com/2013/09/17/parents-start-saving-as-clegg-promises-free-school-meals/

I think it is a waste of money and food. The logistics of feeding hundreds of children will be a major staffing and physically logistical headache for schools. Would much rather have my child benefit back. My family's been totally shafted by this government.

And will be interesting to see what Scotland/ Wales and NI do with their budget.

There are people on what, 75 grand, 150 grand a year who will take this up. They don't need it like they don't need child benefit.

If they want to save parents money then they could scrap uniform in primary schools. That's a huge expense.

Our school meals by chartwells are pure shit. Tiny potions and stodgy.

This will save you £400 per year. Pah!
It is nothing compared to the extra £6,000 per year on student tuition fees that the LibDems voted through, reneging on pre-election promises. They will never get my vote.

I imagine the idea is to start with the youngest children then roll it out to the older ones as time goes on - these things have to start somewhere.

That's what they want you to imagine. It makes more sense to start with the older children, IMO.

They want the school meals services to get a boost, and they hope parents will pay for them once they are in juniors, because the kids have had a good few years to get into the habit of eating them.

I think their dodgy logic needs to be challenged. They are spending a lot of money on the basis that the benefits the research saw when trialling THE WHOLE SCHOOL on free school meals will apply even though only HALF THE SCHOOL will be affected.

The greater the uptake, the better the meals can be, no.

I had a £2.20 school meal with the kids last term. I found it a thoroughly miserable experience. I hope the food improves.
When I was there, I looked at what the kids with lunch boxes were eating too. That was really crap.

Where has the money magically come from?

I think it is an ok idea, although I think the money could probably be better spent and this has been selected more because it is an easy vote winner

I also suspect that, despite my son being the right age, we won't be able to benefit from it. He has multiple allergies, some severe. His nursery manage to cater for him well, with healthy hot meals as similar to his friends as possible, but I doubt many schools are set up for this. I worry he will feel very socially excluded if he's the only one having to take a packed lunch.

It makes more sense to start with little ones - the older ones would revolt!

Wonder were the money will come from to pay for this.

Locally, it comes from the council tax which has been frozen for a few years now. Which of course has an impact on other services which has been cut.

It's been in place here now for at least 3 years. The meals, tbph, haven't improved.

Bonkerz, I am really sad that people working long hours should be struggling so much, and absolutely agree that it would be fairer, if they can't make it universal in whole school, to raise the means test.

I also struggle to pay the school dinners, but I think having a square meal will improve children's concentration and learning far more than giving them a piece of fruit at break time,

Brilliant idea as long as they provide high quality, healthy meals and ban packed lunches.

I will take it up, of course. We lost child benefit, but we are not rich. This potentially would save us over £80 a month.

I'd rather the child benefit of course.

It won't work unless they do what they did when I was at school. We had no packed lunches-you had the school one or you went home. It was very simple-no one had packed lunches.

They can't ban packed lunches.

Stupid idea. Why not just raise the FSM level and make it universal to 16? Rather than give FSM to the wealthy while cutting stuff to the poor. And how will they cater for allergies and specialised diets?
It's a vote attractor.