Southwark Labour will propose free healthy school meals for every primary-school child studying in the borough this week. The policy would benefit up to 15,000 children.

At Southwark Council’s budget meeting on 23^rd February, Labour councillors will propose to cut council spending on consultants and allowances and use the money saved to begin a roll-out of the free meals scheme.

Southwark Labour believes that making free school meals universal is essential to combat our borough’s childhood obesity crisis and improve educational attainment.

Southwark Labour Leader Cllr Peter John said:

“Free school meals for all will strike straight at the heart of many of Southwark’s key problems: child poverty, childhood obesity and ill-health.

“We will show that we can begin to roll out free meals by taking an axe to wasteful spending in this council. Rather than spend vast sums on consultants, corporate lawyers, council spin and councillors’ allowances, we will choose to deliver a programme to improve health and attainment for children and young people.

“I sincerely hope that the Lib Dems will join us in supporting free school meals for all. They ended free school meals in Hull and are blocking them in Islington, but here in Southwark where we have the highest childhood obesity rates in the country they must be able to see the radical benefits.”

NOTES

1. The Labour government is already part-funding trials of universal free school meals in two local authority areas and has announced it is inviting all councils to bid for nine further trials. Southwark Labour will call on the Executive to bid for one of these trials, but making free school meals universal in Southwark would not be contingent on winning the bid.

2. Support for universal free school meals for primary children is growing across the country, with a growing evidence base that their provision improves educational attainment and young people’s health. Despite improvements in attainment thanks to increased spending by the Labour government, Southwark’s educational outcomes still lag behind many other comparable areas of London. The borough also has the highest level of obesity amongst children transferring from primary to secondary school of any borough in London, with more than 27% of young people in this age group classified as obese.

3. A number of local authorities and individual have introduced universal free school meals, with positive results. Trials in individual schools by the Scottish Government in 2007-8 found an increase in school meal uptake of 22% (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/236867/0064986.pdf) whilst a full-scale roll-out by the Labour council in Hull saw uptake increase by almost 30% and a significant impact in all areas of children's schooling behaviour, social relationships, health and learning http://www.cpag.org.uk/scotland/FSM_educationcommittee%201008.doc

4. The introduction of universal free school meals is strongly supported by a range of organisations including the Child Poverty Action Group, the School Food Trust and trade unions. Recent research from the University of Leeds has shown that just 1% of packed lunches meet the government’s nutritional standards for school meals (http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2010/01/13/jech.2008.085977.short?q=w_jech_ahead_tab), whilst School Food Trust research has shown that demand for school meals is particularly cost sensitive

(http://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/UploadDocs/News/documents/School%20Food%20Trust%20FINAL%20REPORT%20Elasticity%20of%20Demand%20131009%20COMPLETE.pdf). Southwark Labour’s policy would mean families wouldn’t be priced out of healthy school meals at a time of economic hardship.