Education Secretary Suggests End Of Free School Meals For Some Infants
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
This is the sub-heading.
Bridget Phillipson has put forward a £500m package of savings in negotiations with the Treasury
Welcome to the Summer of Discontent.
The Anonymous Widower 
Odd indeed. Labour was all for universal free school lunches and more recently free breakfasts. This is mostly to deal with the CBA parents who don’t feed their children properly despite getting child benefit. The other rationale was the “shame” of claiming it plus the problem of parents whose income varies creating admin problems on “change of circumstances”.
Of course universal child benefit, was ended with ABC parents seeing the benefit clawed back once they earned more than the ~£50k threshold.
Comment by Mark Clayton | March 24, 2025 |
I understand that free school meals is expensive. BUT if the children get healthy, tasty and free meals at school, they will be better able to learn in the classroom. They be more settled and less disruptive. And they are less likely to become “delinquents” in the future. Which will save money for other areas of the budget – policing, NHS if people arent being admitted to hospital. The government to consider the effects that short term economics have on long term economics.
Comment by nosnikrapzil | March 24, 2025 |
Remember, this is a Government of all the Lawyers. They don’t do maths!
Comment by AnonW | March 24, 2025 |
Is this the same Labour party that berated the previous lot over school meals when Rashford had done all the ground work!!
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | March 24, 2025 |
The article is behind a paywall, so we don’t know the details of the proposal. Is means testing proposed? If the proposal does not become government policy, hopefully this will also be publicised.
Comment by JohnC | March 25, 2025 |