Councils throughout England are “quietly” axing vacation meals voucher schemes for kids on free college meals, which has left many households determined this half-term, headteachers and charities warn.
It took an enormous public marketing campaign, led by the Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford, to power Boris Johnson right into a U-turn in November 2020 on feeding youngsters from the lowest-income households through the college holidays.
However the authorities has mentioned it’s now as much as particular person councils whether or not they proceed to supply the £15-a-week vouchers. Native authorities together with Studying, York, Wakefield, Stoke-on-Trent, Leeds and Birmingham have dropped them. Consultants say dad and mom face a postcode lottery for assist.
Emma Cantrell, founding father of First Days, a charity tackling youngster poverty in Berkshire, mentioned: “With out a shadow of a doubt, there have been dad and mom who haven’t been in a position to put meals on the desk this half-term, and youngsters can be returning to highschool hungry on Monday.”
Cantrell works with a gaggle distributing surplus meals, and mentioned they had been “overrun with households determined to get their fingers on something this week”. Her charity has been administering the kids’s vouchers on behalf of Wokingham council. Nevertheless, neighbouring Studying has dropped the scheme.
“There’s a highway the place youngsters on totally different sides get utterly totally different assist, with assist for one household and no assist for one more,” she mentioned.
Cantrell, whose charity distributes free beds and uniforms to struggling households, mentioned demand for assist had doubled up to now six months and she or he was now repeatedly seeing youngsters who had been “visibly malnourished”.
She added: “Councils will appear like the dangerous guys [for cutting vouchers], however it is a results of adjustments by the federal government. It’s being performed extremely quietly, so most individuals don’t know it’s occurring.”
In 2020, Rashford referred to as for the federal government to increase its £15 free college meal vouchers – initially set as much as feed youngsters in term-time when colleges had been closed by the pandemic – into the vacations.
Earlier than each the summer season and Christmas holidays, Johnson, and his chancellor Rishi Sunak, dug their heels in and refused, solely to be pressured right into a humiliating U-turn every time, after waves of criticism from charities, media, Labour and a few Tory MPs.
Funding for vacation vouchers in England now has to return out of councils’ family assist fund, launched in October final 12 months by the federal government.
A spokesperson for the Division for Work and Pensions mentioned: “Not too long ago boosted by an additional £421m, the fund permits councils – who know their areas greatest – to focus on assist to these most in want, together with offering further assist through the college holidays.”
Councils chopping the vouchers say assist for kids on free college meals remains to be obtainable by way of different schemes however that they had been utilizing up an excessive amount of of their share of the family assist fund, which is meant to assist individuals throughout the group.
A spokesperson for Studying council mentioned it was “consolidating meals and vitality assist into one price of dwelling voucher”, focused on the poorest households and older individuals.
Anne Longfield, chair of the Fee on Younger Lives and former youngsters’s commissioner, instructed the Observer she was “actually involved” that “increasingly councils” are withdrawing meals assist for the poorest households.
“Households in some areas are being left excessive and dry,” she mentioned. “These vouchers could also be small however they’ll maintain off destitution.”
She referred to as on the federal government to acknowledge the rising variety of households in poverty, including: “This isn’t a private difficulty. It’s a nationwide disaster that ought to be mentioned alongside reassuring the markets.”
Jonny Uttley, chief government of the Training Alliance academy belief, which runs seven colleges in Hull and the East Driving of Yorkshire, mentioned: “Wakefield council has instructed us they’ll’t afford the vouchers. It’s simply pot luck. If you happen to reside in Hull you get £15 however in different authorities you get nothing.”
Though it’s dealing with main monetary pressures itself, the belief is now paying for vouchers from its personal reserves so youngsters don’t go hungry within the holidays.
James Bowen, director of coverage for the varsity leaders’ union NAHT, mentioned: “It can’t be proper that whether or not or not households have entry to monetary assist to make sure youngsters are fed correctly through the holidays will depend on the place they reside.” He added:“We all know some youngsters depend on college for his or her solely sure meal of the day.”
A single mom in Leeds with two boys receiving free college meals, who requested to not be named, mentioned: “The voucher paid for a lot of the meals for every week, and we obtained used to having it. However all of a sudden it didn’t come any extra.”
This half-term she needed to borrow cash from her dad and mom to feed her youngsters. “Most politicians have by no means needed to fear about whether or not they can purchase meals for the week,” she mentioned. “I don’t assume they perceive and I don’t assume they care.”
A spokesperson for Leeds metropolis council mentioned they’d nonetheless present free meals as a part of their wholesome holidays actions programme this Christmas, however that their share of the family assist fund would “prioritise gasoline assist” this winter.