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An additional £11.8 million investment by the Government will provide thousands of children across the country with a healthy and nutritious breakfast to ‘set them up’ for the school day. 

So far around 1,800 school breakfast clubs have been created or improved by the National School Breakfast Programme. Thanks to the £11.8 million investment up to 650 more schools will benefit from the programme next year.  

LACA said the following:  “LACA welcome the announcement to increase funding for school breakfast and holiday programmes. We would like to see this approach reflected in the Universal Infant Free School Meals policy (UIFSM). UIFSM provides as many children as possible with a hot, healthy and nutritious meal and has been linked to higher attainment and better concentration. 

“However, as LACA have long highlighted, the £2.30 awarded for these meals has not increased since 2014 despite the rising cost of food and labour. In their 2019 manifesto the Conservatives committed to maintaining the school meal provision. If the cost of UIFSM is not increased the policy will become increasingly more difficult to deliver, with potential cuts having to be made.

“This was echoed by the Institute for Fiscal studies who said that if the Government want to reverse the real-term cuts to per-meal spending and protect funding going forward £2.51 needs to be raised. As such, we are calling on the new Government to stick to their manifesto pledge and commit to saving UIFSM.”