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Free School Meal Pilot, Newham

Tuesday, 9 March, 2010.

Introduction

In September 2009, Newham Borough Council bid to join the Free School Meal Pilot and won. Since the implementation of the pilot the participating primary schools have had to make changes. TeacherNet visited three Newham schools, talked to Newham Council to find out how the pilot has developed so far, what changes have been made and what affects the pilot has had on the surrounding community.

Background summary to the Newham Pilot:-

The pilot is being jointly funded by the Department of Health and the Department of Children, Schools and Families, up to £20 million. Government funding in each area will be matched by funding for the local authority. The 2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation shows that Newham is the sixth most deprived Borough in the country.

The Newham Household Panel Survey found that 52 per cent of children experience childhood poverty.

Newham has the 3rd and 2nd highest obesity rates in the country in reception and year 6 respectively

Percentage of Reception pupils overweight or obese

- Overweight 12.4 per cent

- Obese 14 per cent

- Total for both categories 26.4 per cent

Percentage of Year 6 pupils overweight or obese

- Overweight 14.5 per cent

- Obese 25.6 per cent

- Total for both categories 40.1 per cent

DURHAM, NEWHAM AND WOLVERHAMPTON PILOT FREE SCHOOL MEALS

In May 2009, Secretary of State for Children Ed Balls and Health Secretary Alan Johnson, announced that more primary school children in Durham, Newham and Wolverhampton will benefit from a free healthy school lunch.

Since September 2009, Durham and Newham have provided universal Free School Meals (FSMs) to all primary school children and Wolverhampton have piloted an extension of the current eligibility criteria. The pilots runs for two years from September 2009. Each pilot will be tested against a control group where the current rules for eligibility for FSMs apply to inform the full evaluation.

The pilots are joint funded with a total of £20 million from Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department of Health and this money is being matched by the local authorities (LAs).

LAs in deprived areas were invited to bid to take part in a two-year pilot which will look at the health benefits of free school meals. It will investigate whether free school meals.

reduce obesity/have an impact on a child's BMI
change eating habits at home
impact on behaviour and academic performance at school
improve school standards
improve general health and well being.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls said:

"Healthy school dinners feed the minds and bodies of our children helping them to get the most out of their school day and these pilots will let us understand the benefits of a hot dinner for all pupils.

"We are determined that those eligible for free school meals but not claiming them, do so — it is not good enough that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are missing out on a free healthy meal every school day.

"We know good health is vital if children and young people are to enjoy their childhood and achieve their full potential. We have put massive extra funding in place to raise nutritional standards and keep dinner prices down — over £650 million ring-fenced investment by 2011. This will also fund better teaching and nutrition, diet and practical cooking skills in class; improving kitchen facilities and improving overall take-up.

"We want to support all families, children and young people to make healthy choices and lead as healthy a life as possible. These pilots will provide us with important information on the impact of having a free, healthy, hot meal each day and enable us to see whether it does improve behaviour, school results and healthy eating at home.

"I want to congratulate and thank Durham, Newham and Wolverhampton for their successful bid and will wait with interest to see the impact this will have on children's lives."

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said:

"We know from the independent analysis of free healthy school meals in primary schools in Hull, that good nutrition helps to improve behaviour and attainment in schools as well as improving health. All parents want to give their children the best possible start in life, and improving access to healthy food in schools is one way we can help.

"Poor diet in childhood can lead to health problems such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and type two diabetes in later life — issues being tackled by our Change4Life campaign and pilots such as these. I look forward to seeing the results and congratulate the winning parties."

Judy Hargadon, Chief Executive of the School Food Trust said:

"These pilots are hugely welcome. There are over one million children that could already benefit from free school meals but too many do not claim their entitlement and far too many that have registered still choose not to eat the food on offer. Hopefully these pilots will get to the root cause of these problems so we can make sure that all children get the best chance to do well at school by having a healthy lunch every day."

The pilots will be evaluated by the National Centre for Social Research. The evaluation will look in particular at the impact of each option for free school meals on school lunch take up; diet and eating habits at school and at home, and on health, behaviour, concentration and attainment. The scheme evaluation will determine whether or not the additional benefits resulting from the FSM pilot offer value for money and identify whether the current eligibility rules are right.

Ed Balls will also be writing next week to all headteachers, chairs of governing bodies, local authority lead members and directors of children's services to encourage all schools and LAs to continue to promote healthy school lunches to their pupils. He will remind schools of the range of steps that they can take which have been shown to have a significant and positive impact on school lunch take-up. These are:

establishing kitchens in all schools to prepare fresh food;
ensuring that dining facilities are welcoming and queuing is minimised;
putting food at the heart of the school day and building it into the curriculum;
adopting packed lunch policies;
ensuring that the school food workforce, including lunchtime supervisors and business managers as well as cooks, have the skills they need to run a successful school meals service. School FEAST training centres have been established across England to offer a range of tailor-made cooking, management, procurement and marketing training opportunities to meet the needs of organisations and individuals.

In December 2009 the Pre-Budget Report announced the Government would be expanding the successful pilots to trial universal free school meals to all primary-aged children in at least one LA area in each region of the country. This means a minimum of nine pilot areas in total from September 2010.

Editor's Notes
This press notice relates to 'England'

1.The pilot was announced on 24 September 2008. LAs in deprived areas were invited to offer universal free school meals or an extension to the current eligibility criteria. Deprived local authorities are defined as having at least 15 per cent of pupils currently eligible for FSM. The objective of the pilot is to gather evidence on the effectiveness of free school meals provision, including cost effectiveness.

2.15.9 per cent of primary pupils (658,910 pupils) and 13.1 per cent of secondary pupils (429,700) are known to be eligible for Free School Meals (FSMs), based on current rules — income support, income based job seekers allowance, child tax credits (where annual incomes do no exceed £16,040), guaranteed element of state pension credit or a letter of support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999). 82 per cent (544,370 pupils) of those primary pupils eligible for FSMs take up their entitlement and 72 per cent (314,630 pupils) of eligible secondary pupils.