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Judith kicked-off the webinar by outlining her objectives for the coming year. The first objective is to continue with messaging around differences in school meals funding across the UK. Scotland receive £3.30, Wales get £3.20, in Northern Ireland it is £2.60 and England lags behind with £2.58.

The other objectives are to promote the great work of school caterers up and down the country, provide expertise to the Department for Education on breakfast provision and to expand free school meals to children who live in families that get universal credit.

Judith then spoke about the national insurance increase being a ‘double hit’ for school caterers as there will be increased costs for their own staff as well as suppliers passing on increased costs. She noted the benefits of auto-enrolment which helps to ensure that more children receive a hot, healthy and nutritious school meal.

LACA carried out a survey asking school caterers if they believe a figure between £3 and £3.20 would be enough to provide children with a two-course lunch. The majority of respondents (87%) agreed with this statement with just 13% disagreeing. The average figure given by those who said no was £3.40.

Judith highlighted the Cost of a School Lunch Report, which was published last year, found the true cost of a school meal should be £3.16. She also raised the point that the funding isn’t just used for food but for staffing and overhead costs as well.

Olivia Harris from Menara Advisors said the objective of their campaign was to increase funding for universal infant free school meals and free school meals in England to be in line with the devolved nations. Their tactics include:

• Written to 50+ MPs raising concerns.
• Wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister, Chancellor and the Education Secretary calling them to increase funding for UIFSM. 700 caterers signed this.
• Ran a broadcast day, which allowed LACA to disseminate our message on LBC, Heart and London Live.
• Have taken part in the NEU campaign by asking our members to write to their local MPs, calling for universal primary FSMs.

Menara Advisors has secured a meeting with the School Food Minister MP Stephen Morgan as well as an upcoming meeting with newly elected Labour MP Neil Duncan-Jordan.

Gavin Squires, business development controller for education and healthcare at Bidfood UK, spoke about the wholesalers activities in lobbying the Government in recent years. Bidfood’s most recent Government paper had four recommendations:

• Action 1: Ringfence UIFSM / Benefitted FSM Allowance
• Action 2:  Increased funding
• Action 3:  Increase eligibility of free school meals
• Action 4: Extension of universal free school meals to Key Stage 2 (Juniors)

He pointed out that the national living wage had increased from 70.70% since 2015 and food inflation had increased almost 29% in the same time period. However universal infant free school meals funding had increased by just 2%. Bidfood recommends school meals funding should be between £3.44-3.50 per meal.

The webinar finished with Judith reminding attendees that the LACA Awards for Excellence for 2025 have been launched. Member early bird booking rates are available until Friday 25th April for the LACA Main Event.

LACA members can access the presentation and a recording of the webinar in the member's area of the website.