New funding for “wraparound childcare” in schools must include money for free breakfasts, the Government has been warned.
Magic Breakfast, a charity that funds free breakfasts to deprived schoolchildren, said the pot of money announced by the Government risks being an “expensive token” unless a long-term sustainable model is established.
It is urging the Department for Education to ring-fence some of the funding to support hungry kids.
And it warned that without a sustainable, long-term plan the efforts to boost childcare through extending school hours could lead to increased pressure on schools to be the “unspoken arm of the welfare state”.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the Government would provide £289m in “start-up funding” for schools and councils to “test” whether schools could provide wraparound childcare between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
Lindsey MacDonald, chief executive of Magic Breakfast, welcomed the announcement but said it did not address the “urgent” need to help deprived children now.
“Our understanding is £289m has been committed but will only come in the next 12 months, and looking at the detail of the Budget, there’s only funding for two years. So it’s a big pile of cash without seemingly any sustainability or plan after that testing period,” she told i.
“There is absolutely need for the childcare system in the UK to be revolutionised and we were really positive about this being in the Budget, but I think where breakfast clubs can make an impact on children’s learning, attainment, nutrition, health and focus then we need to make sure that is purposefully and intentionally set out in the guidelines by the DfE.”
She said a concern was that this short-term funding would leave “stretched” schools left to shoulder the additional provisions once the money runs out which, she argued, was “not sustainable”.
“There’s no long term intentionality behind this. It has the risk of being very expensive token when there is an opportunity for it to make a difference, but it just needs to be understood: what difference are we trying to make, for who and where?,” she said.
Magic Breakfast estimates the number of children at risk of hunger each day is at four million, and Ms MacDonald said this figure has been drastically increasing during the recent cost of living crisis.
“More children and more families are falling into a situation where they desperately need school breakfast provision because they can’t afford food at home or they are so stretched having to work so many hours they haven’t got the time,” she said.
“Schools and headteachers are worried about the challenges to their budgets they are already experiencing. What we hear a lot from our headteachers is that they are ultimately an unspoken part of the welfare state and not funded to do that either.
“So it’s about making sure schools and educators can go back and really focus on educating and any investment or spend on childcare, or anything extending those school days, is properly funded and doesn’t mean that headteachers actually need to dip into their existing budget.
“That’s the biggest worry is this going to just put more and more pressure on an already overstretched overtaxed sector and workforce.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have just announced the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever. We are increasing the availability of childcare, reducing costs and increasing the number of parents who are able to access it.
“Some schools may want to put in place breakfast provision as part of the wraparound arrangements they establish.
“We are already investing up to £30 million in the Breakfast Club programme to help schools offer nutritious breakfasts to children. This funding will support up to 2,500 schools in disadvantaged areas, meaning that thousands of children from low-income families will be offered free nutritious breakfasts to better support their attainment, wellbeing, and readiness to learn.”
