Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he is taking steps to provide families access to food over the school summer holidays for children (a) currently in receipt of free school meals and (b) who become eligible for free school meals over the summer period.

Schools provide free school meals for eligible pupils during term time. Beyond that, billions of pounds of welfare assistance is in place to support families, young people and children.

The COVID Local Support Grant, established by the Department for Work and Pensions and operated through local authorities in England, is there to support the hardest hit families and individuals with food and essential utility costs. This grant has been extended for a final time, with a further investment of £160 million, to cover the period up to 30 September 2021.

This grant is further to the £269 million invested since the scheme (previously known as the COVID Winter Grant Scheme) launched in December 2020.

The funding remains ring-fenced, with at least 80% targeted to assist with food and bills, and at least 80% for families with children. Local authorities have discretion to decide how to allocate government funding in their areas, recognising that they are best placed to understand local needs. Local authorities have the flexibility within the scheme to identify which vulnerable households are in most need of support and apply their own discretion when identifying eligibility.

Further guidance on the COVID Local Support Grant is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-local-support-grant-guidance-for-local-councils/covid-local-support-grant-extension-21-june-to-30-september-2021-guidance.

Further to this, the department announced the significant expansion of the holiday activities and food programme, which provides healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children. It will operate in every local authority across England this summer – backed by up to £220 million. It builds on previous programmes, including last summer’s, which supported around 50,000 children across 17 local authorities.