Campaigners call for council leaders reassurance on free school meals

Free School Meals campaigners have today written to every council in Scotland seeking reassurance that free school meals will be rolled out to all P1 to P3 pupils in 2010, as agreed with the Scottish Government in a Concordat signed in November 2007.

According to the letter, the campaigners, who include the Association of Headteachers and Deputes Scotland (AHDS), the Child Poverty Action Group, One Parent Families Scotland, Poverty Alliance and members of the Scottish Churches Social Inclusion Network, are “concerned that the huge benefits to children and families of a universal approach to free school meals...could be overshadowed by the reported disagreement on the wider funding settlement between local and national government."

The Campaign believes that given the consensus that exists on the importance of healthy eating for children’s education, health and wellbeing it would be “a tragedy if a scheme which has boosted healthy school take up by such extraordinary levels (from 53% to 75% in the pilot areas) were not to be rolled out across Scotland as agreed."

They argue that “the further benefit to hard pressed family budgets..cannot be underestimated in these increasingly difficult economic times."

John Dickie, Head of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland, a leading member of the Campaign and signatory to the letter, said

“It is vital that all local authorities, as well as Ministers, stick to the commitments they have made. Free school meals were explicitly agreed as part of the funding settlement and underpinning Concordat signed between councils and the Scottish Government last year. It would be a tragedy if the education, health and wellbeing of our children were to fall foul of an apparent dispute between national and local government. For the sake of children and hard pressed families across Scotland, the promise of free school meals for every child in the early years of primary school must be kept.”

Greg Dempster, General Secretary of the Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland (AHDS), another signatory to the letter, said:

“For some time AHDS has supported the move to extend free school meals and looks forward to its implementation around Scotland. There are much rehearsed nutritional and educational benefits to be had from such a move. Of course, the real prize to be had from what is undeniably a significant investment is the potential long term impact on the health of our nation.”

Notes for editors

1. For more details contact

• ·John Dickie, head of CPAG in Scotland, on 07795 340 618

2. The letter has been sent to Council Leaders and Chief Executives in all 32 local authorities.

3. The evaluation of the Scottish Government’s universal free school meal pilot, which involved 35,000 P1 to P3 pupils in West Dunbartonshire, Borders, Fife ,Glasgow and East Ayrshire, found that:

• uptake of school meals among P1s to P3s rose from 53 per cent to 75 per cent.
• Amongst children already entitled to free school meals under the existing means-testing arrangements take-up rose by up to 8.5 percentage points.
• “Implementation of the trial was relatively straightforward. There was no unexpected impacts and roll out by other local authorities should not be problematic.”
• “Parents, teachers, local authority staff and catering staff were overwhelmingly positive about the provision of universal free school meals for P1 to P3 pupils.”
• “The trial provided pupils with an opportunity to try new foods, resulting in pupils asking at home for food they had tried at school.”
• “..the trial acted as a catalyst for pupils willingness to try new foods..”
• There was “…evidence that the trial had impacted positively on the home environment of pupils.”
• “.. the simple benefit of increasing disposable income was particularly evident amongst parents with more than child – some parents mentioned that meeting the costs of school meals is prohibitive..”

The evaluation report and a 4-page Research Findings is published on the Scottish Government website at:
Main report: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/08/29114033
Research findings: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/08/29113958

4. The Concordat signed between the Scottish Government and local government on 14 November explicitly states that:
“…providing the evaluation of the trials is positive.…(and)…assuming legislation is passed, local authorities will provide free school meals to all P1 to P3 pupils from August 2010.”

See p5 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/923/0054147.pdf.