North Yorkshire Council: 'Free school meals children won't face stigma'
There are concerns that increasingly large numbers of those eligible for free school meals won't take up the support
Parents struggling to make ends meet in cost of living crisis have been told their children can have free school meals without facing any social stigma amid concerns that increasingly large numbers of those eligible will not take up the support.
North Yorkshire County Council’s director of children’s services, Stuart Carlton, said the authority was talking to both parents and schools as part of a drive to improve the 78 per cent take-up from those entitled to free school meals.
A meeting of the authority’s executive heard concerns were mounting over the rate of take-up particularly due to the number of those eligible for the meals being set to significantly increase in the coming months as inflation and soaring energy bills leave family budgets increasingly stretched.
Ripon Ure Bank and Spa division councillor Barbara Brodigan questioned what the authority was doing to find out the reasons behind more than one in five of eligible children’s parents not accepting free school meals.
She also pressed the council’s leadership about what was being done to encourage take-up and what support was being offered to those just outside the criteria to qualify.
The council’s executive member for education, Councillor Annabel Wilkinson, said the 15.4 per cent of pupils already eligible for free school meals was forecast to rise due to the cost of living crisis.
She said: “We have recognised that there have been some barriers and sticking points in the application process and we have addressed those to make it easier for people to apply and been promoting that extensively.
“As schools go back I’m sure that they will encourage that because obviously they get the pupil premium from people that receive free school meals.”
She said the council was also offering other support, such as its Local Assistance Fund, to those facing financial difficulty and had also simplified the process for applying for free school meals.
Mr Carlton added while the take-up of free school meals had remained at about 20 per cent below the number available for some years, there was a concern “with the numbers going up so significantly with the parents who have not had to access this before”.
He said: “There are issues of this feeling like a stigma and something that they are embarrassed about. We have talked to our schools and have worked with our catering service to make free school meals non-stigmatising.
“I would say to any parent if you are entitled to a free school meal please please take it up. If you are worried about any stigma or embarrassment please just talk to your school. It has changed from what it was like 20 years ago. Children can access a free school meal and no one would know any different.”