News

 The Times reports today that the Liberal Democrat plan to provide free school meals to all infants in English state schools was a hastily drawn up policy designed to serve as a bargaining chip in exchange for Tory marriage tax breaks.

In a meeting between David Cameron, George Osborne, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander the £600m school food plan was given as a ‘quid pro quo’ for the similarly priced reward for married couples, expected to be announced at Conservative party conference later this month.

Quoting LACA, the article noted that: “The Local Authority Caterers Association said that they expected the announcement to create more jobs.”

In a positive comment on packed lunches, the article noted that only 1% reach the nutritional requirements that apply to school food and that advocates of the policy say more school dinners will bring down costs.

Additionally, the Daily Telegraph has today run a comment piece by Jemima Lewis in which she says that everyone benefits from a universal free school meals programme and  cites previous pilots of the scheme across the country as evidence of its benefits.

She also draws on the results from the pilot studies in Durham and Newham, east London which showed that when all primary school pupils received a free school meal their behaviour was better and their academic performance improved significantly.

For the full Times article click below:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article3872964.ece

To read the Telegraph report in full click below:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/primaryeducation/10318087/Everyone-benefits-from-free-school-meals.html