Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department’s guidance entitled Providing school meals during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, updated on 10 September 2020, for what reason his Department has yet to provide the further guidance referred to under the heading: if food parcels are needed.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We continue to work with stakeholders to provide advice and support to schools. Guidance has been prepared jointly by the Lead Association for Catering in Education (LACA), Public Health England and the Department for Education, setting out some general principles for putting together a food parcel, which will allow parents and carers to prepare simple and healthy lunches for their children at home across the week. This guidance is available on LACA’s website here:
https://laca.co.uk/laca-view/free-school-meals-guidance-producing-food-parcels.
A further updated version of our guidance will be published shortly and the current version is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools.
Now schools and their kitchens are open, normal free school meal provision resumes, enabling children to have a nutritious healthy meal at school. Schools should provide meal options for all pupils who are in school and meals should be available free of charge to all infant pupils and all pupils who meet the benefits-related free school meals eligibility criteria. As set out in our guidance, schools are able to support pupils eligible for benefits-related free school meals who have to remain at home due to self-isolation with food parcels.
Approximately 88% of pupils on roll in state-funded schools were in attendance on 10 September. Attendance estimates include pupils absent for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 related reasons. Further data on school attendance of free school meal eligible children will be published in due course.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department’s guidance entitled Providing school meals during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, updated on 10 September 2020, what discussions he has had with (a) Public Health England and (b) the Lead Association for Catering in Education on the provision of guidance which includes examples of recommended practice for children requiring free school meals in food parcels.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We continue to work with stakeholders to provide advice and support to schools. Guidance has been prepared jointly by the Lead Association for Catering in Education (LACA), Public Health England and the Department for Education, setting out some general principles for putting together a food parcel, which will allow parents and carers to prepare simple and healthy lunches for their children at home across the week. This guidance is available on LACA’s website here:
https://laca.co.uk/laca-view/free-school-meals-guidance-producing-food-parcels.
A further updated version of our guidance will be published shortly and the current version is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools.
Now schools and their kitchens are open, normal free school meal provision resumes, enabling children to have a nutritious healthy meal at school. Schools should provide meal options for all pupils who are in school and meals should be available free of charge to all infant pupils and all pupils who meet the benefits-related free school meals eligibility criteria. As set out in our guidance, schools are able to support pupils eligible for benefits-related free school meals who have to remain at home due to self-isolation with food parcels.
Approximately 88% of pupils on roll in state-funded schools were in attendance on 10 September. Attendance estimates include pupils absent for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 related reasons. Further data on school attendance of free school meal eligible children will be published in due course.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of pupils eligible for free school meals who were unable to access those meals because they were (a) self-isolating and (b) under local lockdown arrangements in each of the last two weeks for which data is available.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We continue to work with stakeholders to provide advice and support to schools. Guidance has been prepared jointly by the Lead Association for Catering in Education (LACA), Public Health England and the Department for Education, setting out some general principles for putting together a food parcel, which will allow parents and carers to prepare simple and healthy lunches for their children at home across the week. This guidance is available on LACA’s website here:
https://laca.co.uk/laca-view/free-school-meals-guidance-producing-food-parcels.
A further updated version of our guidance will be published shortly and the current version is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools.
Now schools and their kitchens are open, normal free school meal provision resumes, enabling children to have a nutritious healthy meal at school. Schools should provide meal options for all pupils who are in school and meals should be available free of charge to all infant pupils and all pupils who meet the benefits-related free school meals eligibility criteria. As set out in our guidance, schools are able to support pupils eligible for benefits-related free school meals who have to remain at home due to self-isolation with food parcels.
Approximately 88% of pupils on roll in state-funded schools were in attendance on 10 September. Attendance estimates include pupils absent for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 related reasons. Further data on school attendance of free school meal eligible children will be published in due course.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of pupils are eligible for free school meals in (a) Vauxhall constituency, (b) Greater London and (c) England.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department publishes the number of pupils who are eligible for free school meals in the Schools, pupils and their characteristics publication, available at:
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.
The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals in January 2020 was 34.5% in Vauxhall constituency compared with 18.8% in Greater London and 17.3% in England as a whole.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to ensure that free school breakfast and lunch provision continues during the (a) May half-term and (b) summer holidays during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Ordinarily, provision for free school meals (FSM) is during term-time only. However, during the Easter holidays, the department met the costs of offering FSM to eligible pupils not attending school during term-time weeks. This was in recognition of the unprecedented levels of disruption and uncertainty for schools during this time.
These are rapidly developing circumstances. We will continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.
Asked by: Florence Eshalomi (Labour (Co-op) - Vauxhall and Camberwell Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to take steps to provide emergency childcare in cases where all adult members of a household are hospitalised as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Childcare providers are making a vital contribution in our fight against COVID-19. Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on 18 March, they will continue to do so by focusing on childcare for the children of critical workers, and vulnerable children. To assist this change, the Department for Education has confirmed that it will not claw back funding from local authorities for any periods of closures where settings are closed or children are not able to attend due to COVID-19. The government expects local authorities to follow the department’s position, and continue early years entitlements funding for childminders, pre-schools and nurseries. This should also apply to those infant and primary schools that deliver the early years entitlements. This will minimise short-term disruptions to early years providers’ finances and allow the system to recover more quickly.
The Chancellor has also announced a package of support for businesses that will include many early years and childcare providers. This includes business rates relief, a range of loans and grants and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. This scheme allows all UK employers access to support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary for those employees that would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis. HMRC will reimburse 80% of furloughed workers wage costs, up to a cap of £2,500 per month.
We have also issued guidance for local authorities and providers about childcare for specific groups. However, we recognise that when all adults in a household are hospitalised, and there are no family and friends able to provide support, children may need to be cared for in emergency and temporary foster care until parents recover.
The department continues to work alongside Public Health England and early years and children’s social care sector representatives to ensure support is in place for children that need it, and that all measures taken are in the best interests of the health of our nation.