4. Statement by the Minister for Education: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:51 pm on 29 April 2020.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 4:51, 29 April 2020

Thank you, Huw, and I would associate myself with those comments. We were able to make an additional £7 million available to local authorities to ensure that free school meal children were supported over the Easter holidays, and we have made a further £33 million available to take us through either to when schools open or to the start of the new academic year. It is £19.50, which is above the amount that is available in the jurisdiction right next to us.

You're right: local authorities are taking a number of approaches. In some local authorities, they have more than one approach, because they are trying to meet the needs of individual families, so we want to provide flexibility to local authorities to do what's best for the population that they are serving. For some, that is a supermarket voucher, but as I was reminded and as I am very familiar with where I live, that might not be applicable and, therefore, a BACS payment to families is much more helpful and useful. But it is a legitimate choice for local authorities to provide food parcels or a food delivery, and that does provide an important point of contact where they can check in with that child and with that family to see how things are going.

What is very interesting, and what we have already learnt, is that over half the local authorities currently report that take-up of FSM is either equal to or is actually greater than they would usually do during school time, because, of course, during school time, you physically have to be in the school to obtain the food. The fact that we are moving to a different system means that, actually, as I said, half of local authorities have seen take-up either at the expected level or are actually providing more support to more children.