UNISON today joined the STUC, churches and
charities in urging the Scottish Government to deliver on its free school meals
policy.
The call follows Deputy Prime
Minister Nick Clegg's announcement last week of free school meals for children
in P1-P3 in England from September 2014.
UNISON Scotland has long
campaigned for universal free school meals and is disappointed that the
Scottish Government has not delivered on its commitment to provide a free
healthy lunch to all pupils in P1-P3.
At a time when child poverty is
predicted to increase significantly, food bank use is soaring and family
budgets are hit by falling incomes and rising food and energy bills, free
school meals are more important than ever.
In a letter to the Deputy First
Minister and Cabinet Secretaries for Finance, Education and Health, the STUC,
UNISON, EIS, Church of Scotland and children's organisations and anti-poverty
campaigners said:
"..We have all welcomed the Scottish Government’s long standing
policy objective of moving toward the provision of free school meals to all
pupils in P1 to P3, the SNP Manifesto commitment to“look at ways of expanding
current provision' and the progress that has been
made in widening entitlement to free school meals.
"Nevertheless it has been a matter of real concern and disappointment that, to date, the roll out of free school meals to all pupils in P1 to P3, as announced by the Scottish Government in 2010, has not yet been fully implemented. What limited progress that had been made by local authorities has been scaled back in recent years.
"We therefore believe that the UK government announcement, and the additional resources that we understand are to be made available, create a huge opportunity for the Scottish Government to now fulfil its ambition of providing a free healthy meal to all children in P1 to P3. We urge you to ensure the Scottish Government acts as soon as possible to confirm that P1 to P3 children in Scottish primary schools will also now receive a healthy school lunch from September 2014..."
The press release from the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland is below.
Also, see news reports from The Herald , the Daily Record , STV and BBC Scotland .
Press release:
The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), STUC, UNISON and Church of Scotland today join children’s organisations and anti-poverty campaigners in calling for the roll out of free school meals to all Scottish primary school pupils in P1 to P3. The call follows the announcement last week by the Deputy Prime Minister that children in the first three years of school in England will receive a free school lunch from September 2014.
In a letter sent to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretaries for Finance, Education and Health the organisations say that the UK government announcement “creates a huge opportunity for the Scottish Government to now fulfil its ambition of providing a free healthy meal to all children in P1 to P3”.
The organisations behind the letter, who also include Save the Children, Children 1st, One Parent Families Scotland and the Child Poverty Action Group, go on to urge Ministers to act “as soon as possible to confirm that P1 to P3 children in Scottish primary schools will also now receive a healthy school lunch from September 2014”.
The Scottish Government has a long standing policy objective of moving toward the provision of free school meals to all pupils in P1 to P3. However in their letter the organisations say “it has been a matter of real concern and disappointment that, to date, the roll out of free school meals to all pupils in P1 to P3, as announced by the Scottish Government in 2010, has not yet been fully implemented”.
Larry Flanagan, EIS General Secretary, a signatory to the letter, said;
“Ensuring that all pupils in P1 to P3 receive a free school meal would
be a significant step, which would aid family budgets, bring important health
benefits for young children and help these pupils concentrate on their learning
throughout the school day. The EIS supports the principle of universal free
entitlement to help remove the stigma that some pupils can experience in
claiming free school meals. For health reasons, it is vitally important that
all pupils across Scotland have access to substantial and nutritionally
balanced meals at lunchtimes."
Grahame Smith, General Secretary of the STUC, another leading signatory, said;
“Families across the country are under massive pressures as benefit and
tax credit cuts bite, wages stagnate and the cost of food and energy soar.
Ensuring children in the early years of primary school all get a healthy free
lunch would play a hugely important role in relieving pressure on family
budgets, helping make work pay for parents and boosting children’s health and
wellbeing.”
John Dickie, Head of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland and a leading member of the Scottish Free School Meals Campaign added,
"Scotland has led the way over the last few years in improving
school lunches, piloting and committing to universal school meals in the early
years of primary and expanding entitlement. This is now the ideal time for
Ministers to take the next step and deliver longstanding commitments to roll
out free school meals to all pupils inP1 to P3. Such a move would protect against rising
levels of child poverty and food poverty and at the same time ensure all our
children are able to get the most out of the school day.”
Ends
Notes:
1. Anti-poverty campaigners, children’s organizations, trade unions and faith groups have long argued that the most effective way of ensuring all children, but particularly those in poverty, receive a healthy school lunch is to move toward a universal, non means tested approach to the provision of healthy lunches in the middle of the school day (see http://www.cpag.org.uk/scotland/school-meals ) .
2. Since 2007 SNP governments have made important progress in increasing the number of children, particularly in primary schools, who receive a healthy school lunch by extending entitlement to those in very low income working families and by enabling local authorities to provide free school meals to all P1 to P3 pupils with a policy objective of moving toward universal free school meals for all in P1 to P3 (For details see see para 3.4 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/06/4917/8#s343)
3. The SNP government’s pilot trials of universal provision of free school meals to all P1 to P3 pupils in 2007/8 demonstrated a substantial effect on take up of school meals, increasing overall take up by 22 percentage points from 53% to 75%. Furthermore, amongst children alreadyentitled to free school meals take-up rose by 4.4 percentage points[i], and in some areas up to 8.5 percentage points.
4. Further recent research from the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex[ii] also analysed the wider impact of the Scottish Government’s free school meal pilots. The paper“attributes the rise in take-up of FSMs by those always entitled to a positive peer effect: FSM-registered individuals became more likely to participate because a greater proportion of other students in the school were doing so….The magnitude of the effect is such that in a typical school a 10 percentage point rise in peer-group take-up would reduce non-participation (ie non take up by those already entitled) by almost a quarter.”
5. Evaluation[iii] of the pilots also pointed to a positive impact on family budgets and the home environment. There was, the evaluation concluded, “…evidence that the trial had impacted positively on the home environment of pupils,” and “.. the simple benefit of increasing disposable income was particularly evident amongst parents with more than one child.”
6. The universal approach has not only been shown to increase take up of healthy lunches and relief to family budgets but also to impact positively on children’s learning experience. Evaluation of a free school meals pilot for primary school children over two years in Hull found a“significant impact in all areas of children's schooling...behaviour, social relationships, health and learning”[iv], whilst more recent evaluation of the provision of free school meals to all primary pupils in Durham and Newham found that “offering free school meals to all primary school pupils increased attainment in disadvantaged areas”[v]
[iv][iv]Prof. Derek Colquhoun, Hull Uni, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1995361,00.html
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