A response to a Freedom of Information request has revealed the take up rate for free school meals at the Westfield Primary school.
The York Council, which has pumped £200,000 into a “pilot” aimed at persuading all pupils to eat a school lunch, refused to publish base data last year,. The data would have showed how many children could benefit from the scheme.
Now the figures have been published.
They reveal that the numbers of KS2 (8 – 11 year olds) taking up the FSM offer on a typical day is still only 71%. This compares to 67% before the free meals pilot started.
Cumulative figures for the last 6 weeks of the sprng term (Feb/Mar) reveal similar take up rates
The Freedom of Information response can be viewed by clicking here
In the main, what seems to have happened is that children, who’s parents used to pay for a school meal, have continued – in the main – to take it, albeit now at taxpayers expense.
Many (around 40), however, chose not to..
The 130 children or so that prefer a packed lunch or alternative arrangement have continued to opt for one.
The figures confirm that around 109 children from low income families (income of less than circa £650 a week) have continued to be eligle for, and take up, the school meal offer. Funding for this is outside the £200,000 Council grant.
Quite where this leaves the Councils flagship policy is unclear.
Any hopes that the scheme could be financed by voluntary donations have long since disappeared.
The funding which is available could be better spent, not least supporting children who are genuinely disadvantaged.
Why childen prefer to eat a pack up rather than a cooked meal is another question (albeit not a new one)
Earlier 27th March 2024
Another £100,000 of taxpayers money allocated to prop up failing free school meals trial
The York Council has doubled to £200,000 the subsidy it is making available to provide free school meals for the children of wealthy families. The money is supporting the parents of children at a local school who don’t normally qualify for FSM because they have higher incomes.
178 children are potentially affected, although some are continuing ot make alternative lunch arrangements
Originally the Council had claimed that the project would be funded from “voluntary contributions”. Initially some funds were donated. They are being used to subsidise free breakfasts at Clifton Primary school.
But it appears that the voluntary contributions have dried up. There is no hope that the estimated £4 million needed to roll out the scheme to all primary schools can be covered by voluntary payments.
The decision brings back into focus the absence of the kind of base line data necessary to properly assess the success or otherwise of any trial. The Council have not confirmed the number of children who were paying for school meals before the trial started. How many more – if any – are taking the school meal option, now that it is free of charge, has also not been publicly reported.
So far any effect of the change on educational achievement has been restricted to anecdotal comment.
Although the free school meals pilots will pause over the Easter holidays, many children and young people across the city will be eligible to join York’s Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF).
Children and young people in receipt of benefit-related free school meals can attend free fun activities for keeping active, being creative, and trying something new, together with a healthy meal, over the Easter, summer, and winter school holidays.
The activities are funded by the Department for Education (DfE) as part of the government’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme.
For more information about HAF opportunities in York visit the Raise York website.
NB. The £100,000 allocation means that there will be even less to spend on street level public services. The authority has already been criticised for allowing a marked decline in foothpath and road maintenance standards. It is also threatening to reduce the number times grass is cut this summer coupled with a drastic reduction in weed control. It will also introduce new and increased charges including a £47 bin emptying tax, as well as threatening the future of the library service.
Earlier 9th November 2023
Free school meals plan for Westfield school
The York Council has published a report which tries to explain how the Labour Council’s free school meals policy will be implemented.
The authority plans to run a pilot at, what is Yorks largest primary school – Westfield.
The school has a total of 519 pupils. Any pilot would affect only KS2 pupils; those aged between 7 and 11 years old. Younger pupils (KS1) already receive free meals.
It will operate between January 2024 and December 2024
It turns out that the free lunch policy would apply only during term time. The authority claims it will cost taxpayers £100,000 to fund.
The Council claims that researchers elsewhere in the country found that UFSMs for infant pupils (KS1) had “small but positive impacts on absence, obesity, and household expenditure”
The cost of extending the pilot to cover all primary schools in the City is put at around £4 million. The Council is hoping to fund this through voluntary contributions to a “community fund” Officials warn that the closure of the project after the pilot ends ” may leave families in a worse position”.
Several schools say that the government funding for (existing) free meals should be £2.87 per meal. The current rate paid in the government grant is £2.53 per meal. On average schools are now charging parents £3 per meal.
The funding for FSMs is paid direct to schools as part of the schools grant.Westfield Primary School claims that it has a £25,000 deficit on its existing meals services
Their contractor North Yorkshire Catering Services has established that the cost of extending the meals at Westfield Primary would involve a price per meal of £2.94. The cost quoted includes “the costs of extra staffing, equipment and other sundry costs to deliver the pilot”.
The report makes the following benefit claims
Providing a healthy lunchtime meal for children is expected to have the following benefits:
a. improve cognitive function, particularly memory, attention, reaction time and executive function after lunch;
b. improve academic performance, including school achievement and attainment;
c. Improved attendance;
d. Better weight management; ande} a healthy balanced lunchtime meal can assist in staving off negative health effects.
The report doesn’t say how many of the non-FSM pupils lunch at the school with their parents paying. Without this analysis, it is impossible to judge whether there would be any physical benefits for children, although it is known that the number of children returning home for lunch has declined over the years, while some prefer to take a “pack up” (and may choose to continue to do so).
The trial is to be evaluated by the University of York. No doubt they will make a start by assessing whether those pupils who currently eat free school meals (those from poorer families) outperform their contemporaries who find lunch elsewhere.
No feedback, from the consultation sessions already held with parents, has been included the report.
The authorities are also considering providing free breakfasts at Burton Green Primary Academy although they have yet to find a source of funding for this pilot.
There is a nagging doubt about this initiative.
With poorer families already entitled to free meals, the financial benefits of the pilot will accrue to middle-income and wealthy families. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the vast majority of parents in those groups fail to ensure that their children are properly fed.
If more funding is available to help the poor, then there may be more important projects to prioritise
York News Focus 