Meals funding slammed

Education unions have criticised the 7p per pupil increase for infant free school meals as inadequate.


Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi announced that funding for free school meals for pupils in reception year, year 1 and year 2 will rise to £2.41 per meal.


But NASUWT general secretary Patrick Roach said: “This announcement doesn’t go nearly far enough to meet the significant and rapidly growing number of children and young people of all ages who are in need of help to ensure they do not go hungry.”


And he said that without increased investment in expanding free school meals eligibility and action by the government to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, “many more pupils risk having their health and welfare damaged”.


Roach praised the Welsh government’s pledge to provide free school meals for every primary pupil in Wales by 2024. 


And he said the union urged the UK government “to show the same degree of concern about the impact that the cost-of-living crisis is having on children, adding that the “paltry increase to the funding rate for universal infant free school meals in England will have little impact”.


NAHT director of policyJames Bowen said that an extra 7p per day was simply not enough to cover the increased costs schools are facing. 


“In the current climate, £2.41 will not stretch very far and caterers will still be left facing difficult decisions about what they can provide,” he said.