No funding for free school meals for all Bedford primary school pupils

Bedford Borough Council doesn’t have the funding to provide free school meals to all primary school pupils, a meeting heard.

The Bedford Schools’ Forum heard yesterday (Monday, February 27) that all primary school pupils in London, Wales and five English councils will have access to free school meals for at least a year.

Committee member Stuart Lock, chief executive at Advantage Schools, said the scheme for London will cost £130 million.

“Bedford borough, I understand, has £60 million in reserves as of March 31, 2022,” he said.

“Have we considered the short-term scope for one-off support during the cost of living crisis?”

“If I might gently put it, it might be a bit of a vote winner with elections coming up,” he said.

The council’s portfolio holder for finance, councillor Michael Headley, said: “A lot of those reserves are there for specific purposes, it’s not money that’s just lying around.

“The majority of the reserves are earmarked for specific projects, so can’t we can’t just spend it on [free school meals] because then it’s not there for the things it’s been earmarked for.

“We’re not awash with funding,” he said.

Councillor Headley said the council’s free school meals priority has been to give out shopping vouchers during school holidays for those who have free meals during term time.

“I recognize the need, but that’s essentially where we’ve prioritised our efforts, those times when pupils aren’t at school and aren’t getting the free school meals,” he said.

Mr Lock checked that the council isn’t considering the universal free school meals.

Councillor Headley said: “The cost would be beyond what we have a budget for, I’m sure you’re aware of the financial position councils are in.

“Our main grant from the government back in 2015 was £30 odd million, it is now £7 million.

“The amount of funding we have available has been squeezed dramatically so there isn’t the funding available to do everything that we’d want to do.

“We have to prioritise, and our priority in terms of free school meals is to help those people during school holidays when they wouldn’t be getting a meal otherwise,” he said.

Mr Lock said: “I think the school holidays [scheme] is great and I’m just making the case.

“It’s a [valid] question because of the precedent set by the five councils who have been able to afford it,” he said.