7. Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: Update on Free School Meals

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:47 pm on 20 September 2022.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 5:47, 20 September 2022

(Translated)

I thank Heledd Fychan for those questions. This does demonstrate the benefits of co-operation. This is one element of policy where both parties had a shared priority and could reach agreement on this in the co-operation agreement that we have. And I also agree that this is a first step; we all want to see the policy extended as best we can. It's not fair to say that some authorities are falling behind. I mentioned two or three authorities who, today, cannot fully commit to the target in April, but I wouldn't describe that as falling behind; we have six months before we get to that point. There are two schools that I'm aware of who are providing cold nutritious and healthy food on a temporary basis, but that description of falling behind isn't necessarily fair. The target has been reached and pupils are receiving meals as we had expected.

In terms of the work that's ongoing in order to ensure that we look at the support and that that support is appropriate, that's been ongoing for some time. We're also working now to ensure that the eligibility criteria that have been used to date for all sorts of support that Government provides, that those will be impacted by the fact that you don't have to prove that you are eligible for free school meals in primary schools at the moment. And our work is ongoing with partners in developing new descriptions of that, so that we ensure, as Laura Anne Jones mentioned in her question, that nobody who's already benefiting from that misses out in future. One of the things that we are keen to ensure, as we extend the right to free school meals, is that we write to parents to remind them that, although they don't now have to be eligible for a free school meal, there is also a range of other things available for school pupils, and it's important that they apply for those too—school uniform, for example. 

But you will have heard the First Minister say earlier today that we're looking for all possible opportunities to ensure that any contact with the public sector does remind people that they have rights to benefits and other means of support, to ensure that they can take advantage of the broadest range of support available to them at a difficult time.