Plymouth families set to benefit from new Council scheme this Christmas
The local authority is working on plans to ensure children eligible for free school meals are fed over the holidays
Families in Plymouth with children eligible for free school meals will get help to buy food over the Christmas holidays.
Plymouth City Council is working on the details of a new scheme following a Government decision to provide extra support.
The Government announced a new £170 million Covid Winter Grant scheme for England to fund food and bills for the most in-need after earlier refusing to extend free school meals over the October half-term.
The city council’s Labour cabinet member for education Jon Taylor said the U-turn by the Government followed pressure from the campaign to extend free school meals led by footballer Marcus Rashford.
He said that families in Plymouth were being encouraged to register for free school meals by December 9, which was a cut-off point to ensure help went to people in time over the Christmas holidays.
The city council stepped in with its own scheme to fund food for eligible children during the October half-term after the Government refused to extend free school meals during the holiday and voted down Labour’s proposal in Parliament.
The Plymouth support package for half-term was set up quickly and offered a payment of £11 for each child.
Cllr Taylor said there were 2,700 applications and just under 4,000 children were helped, at a cost of around £40,000.
He told a meeting of the city council’s Cabinet: “You can see from the number of people who applied that it was something that was desperately needed. I’m just really pleased that we were able to step up and do that.”
The number of children qualifying for free school meals in Plymouth has risen during the pandemic to around 9,000.
Cllr Taylor said details of the Christmas support scheme were being worked on by the city council and more information would be released later.
Government figures show Plymouth will get a £926,000 share of the Covid Winter Grant Scheme at the start of December.
The money is ring-fenced, with more than three-quarters allocated for support families with food and bills to the end of March 2021.
The Winter Grant Scheme comes after an earlier £63million for local authorities to provide emergency support to families, pensioners and the most vulnerable with food, essentials and meals.