This post is something of a rant, but I felt the need to air my views on this after the recent debacle about free school meal hampers. If you are looking for specific information on policy that I could influence if elected as a councillor then this post may not yield much, but hopefully it gives a bit of insight on how I see things, and the principles I would apply to decisions in similar cases.
School meals are delivered by schools, often through subcontracted caterers, overseen by school governors. Funding is provided by central government either directly or through local authorities, depending on whether the schools are ‘academies’ or not. Green Party national policy would give schools more freedom to choose how they provide meals, and we would provide support to local providers to supply them. Regulation would focus on maintaining the standard of what is provided (in terms of nutrition and sustainability).
The ability of schools to provide meals is under ever more pressure as their general finances are squeezed. Schools now have less to spend overall per pupil than they did in 2010.
Free school meals
According to government guidance, free school meals should be available for all infant pupils, and older pupils meeting the eligibility criteria.
The system is complex, which means that it is difficult and expensive to administer, and too many people are lost in the system either due to the applicant or those administering it becoming confused and overwhelmed, or the basic meanness of the eligibility criteria.
The system completely failed to deal with coronavirus, when schools were closed and parents lost income. The furlough scheme helped many, but not all. We all saw the media outrage when it became known what was being provided thanks to campaigners such as Jack Monroe and Marcus Rashford. Aside from the humanity of it – children are our biggest investment for the future. Malnourishing children through their education is not building a good foundation for any of us.
Photograph of food parcel provided in the Midlands for a child for 10 days, shared on Twitter by Jack Monroe (@BootstrapCook)
Below is an extract from the latest government guidance to schools (updated 10th March 2021). Try to read that for a moment (please don’t waste your time trying to understand the whole thing) and consider whether this sounds like a system with the needs of the child at heart – or whether it is a byzantine system set up to limit and deny provision:
“Schools will be able to make a claim for locally arranged vouchers to the value of £15 per pupil per week, during the period 4 January to 5 March. Claims for lunch parcel top ups to the value of £3.50 can be made from the period 4 January until the start of the Easter holidays. Claims should not include the half term as support was provided through the COVID Winter Grant Scheme. Schools should only claim for one of these approaches per pupil for any given week.
During the period from 4 January to 16 January, if parents received an inadequate lunch parcel that did not meet the standard expected, the school will be able to claim retrospectively for a locally arranged voucher. They cannot also claim the lunch parcel top-up funding for this period. All claims made will also be cross-referenced with orders made using the national voucher scheme. Orders made through the national voucher scheme should not be claimed as those costs have already been met centrally by DfE.
Beyond the fact that it will need to be a valid claim based on eligible pupils and support provided over the specified timeframe, claims will not be subject to any additional criteria. The claims window will open in April 2021 and further details will be confirmed separately.
We will monitor claims at school level to check that schools are requesting the right amount of support for their eligible pupils. If a school’s claims are higher than expected, we may speak to the school about why this has occurred and will pursue any necessary action to rectify the position which could include action to recoup funds.”
I can’t get over the fact that this was issued *after* the government was repeatedly caught out and shamed for its reprehensibly stingy attitude towards feeding children. Who among parents, teachers, school administrators and governors have the time to understand these regulations and navigate children through them?
It seems obvious to me that it would be better to have a simpler locally-administered system where the resources are dedicated to providing meals, rather than on administration dedicated to denying them. We know from the scandals of the last few months that a system predicated on stinginess results in food parcels with single vegetables, unhealthy snacks and unhygienic repackaged portions that cost far more overall than generous and healthy meals given to anyone who asks.
In normal times it may be better to provide free school meals along with the paid ones from an in-house canteen, but in a pandemic food vouchers seem rational (side note: I’m sure it could be arranged that these could be redeemed in local shops and markets, rather than just supermarkets). Either way, this should be a decision for schools and governors rather than a remote national system.
The FSM vouchers were not overly generous, but there were still claims by Tory MPs and their client journalists that they were being cashed in for drugs. This exposes a contempt for ordinary working people (to be clear, most voucher claimants were employed) at a time of extreme hardship.
Of course, it is difficult to trade a voucher that can only be redeemed for food, for drugs, but what is the danger of them being a little too generous? Would parents be using them to feed other children, or themselves? The horror! Personally, I could live with a bit of that in a pandemic, given that even a generous voucher system would have been cheaper than the system we had, in which large amounts of money were lost in administration and profits for private subcontractors.
Again and again, we find government policy means that taxpayers pay more for less.
This article looks at examples of school dinners around the world. The UK should be aiming for the standard seen in these photos of Italian and Brazilian meals. All children should be able to get them, regardless of ability to pay. In special circumstances, such as a pandemic, a voucher scheme allowing parents to buy equivalent food should be provided.
Promoted by JOHN HILL, 103 MAYFIELD ROAD, ASHBOURNE, DE6 1AS on behalf of the GREEN PARTY, The Biscuit Factory A Block (201), 100 Clements Road, London, SE16 4DG