Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of the national school breakfast programme on (a) pupil attendance rates and (b) educational attainment.

The department is investing up to £26 million in a breakfast club programme, using funds from Soft Drinks Industry Levy revenues. This money will kick-start or improve breakfast clubs in over 1,700 schools. The focus of these clubs has been to target the most disadvantaged areas of the country – including the Department for Education’s Opportunity Areas – to help make sure every child gets the best start in life.

A contract was awarded to Family Action in March 2018 and will run until March 2020. Family Action, in partnership with Magic Breakfast, have both been named as the leading charities responsible for running the Breakfast Club programme. Family Action are distributing the appropriate funding to participating schools who meet the eligibility criteria. Family Action has confirmed that they have reached their recruitment target of 1,775 schools.

We monitor management information from the programme on an ongoing basis and will also review the effectiveness of the programme fully once the programme concludes including the number of children attending.

In March 2019, Family Action indicated that by the start of the summer term over 250,000 children would be benefiting from the programme.