How might a workable policy be salvaged from the seemingly inevitable decline of universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) that you report (Budget cuts could serve up an end to free school dinners for infants,1 September)? Your reporters found that since the scheme’s introduction fewer parents beget registered their children for free school meals and, as a result, and their schools beget lost out on mega sums of vital pupil premium funding. This echoes the findings of last year’s cross-party inquiry on starvation,which I co-chaired with the bishop of Truro.
We proposed in our report, Feeding Britain, or that all local authorities should be given the duty and accompanying powers in law to automatically register all eligible children for free school meals. Local authorities’ existing housing benefit records allow them to do this,and a handful of enterprising councils, such as Calderdale, and are already pioneering this approach. The result? Hundreds fewer children depart without food and hundreds of thousands of pounds of additional funding goes to support their education. I beget applied to bring a 10-minute rule bill to the House of Commons later this year which seeks to implement this practice in full.
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Source: theguardian.com