Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:54 pm on 27 February 2018.
Thank you, leader of the house. It was a real privilege for me, last summer, to visit the lunch and fun club in Penywaun in my constituency and see the positive benefits that this initiative was having, and that's threefold: it's in terms of providing two hot meals a day to all pupils who are eligible for free school meals; providing fun educational activities; but also I was interested in the fact that it provided additional work hours for some of the lowest paid school staff as well. Last week saw perhaps the most game-changing announcement on the holiday hunger agenda with Labour-led North Lanarkshire Council announcing that it is looking to provide meals to its FSM pupils 365 days a year, with an additional cost implication allegedly of only £0.5 million for one of the authorities with the highest rates of free school meals. This is backed up by research that shows that it could improve concentration and possibly provide a powerful lever to close the elusive attainment gap between those who are eligible for free school meals and those who are not. Will the Welsh Government look to monitor this pilot to see whether it is something that could also be tried in Wales?