Government Quietly Kills Off Free School Meals Fund Worth £32m
The Government has quietly killed of a grant designed to help small schools offer free school meals to young children.
Cash grants which have been handed out to small infant schools will not be renewed next month - forcing the schools to find funds elsewhere.
Some are even considering redundancies.
The Department of Education announced the change on its website last week - with small schools in rural areas bearing the brunt of the changes.
The grant was aimed at small schools with fewer than 150 pupils, which needed extra cash because they could not buy food in bulk.
Neil Short chair of the National Association for Small Schools, told Schools Week: ‘Many small schools are already vulnerable – one or two I’ve spoken to are considering redundancies.’
Shadow Children’s Minister Sharon Hodgson said: ‘Once again David Cameron’s rhetoric doesn’t match the reality.
‘His Government is undermining his own pledge to hard-working parents and their children, who were promised a healthy and nutritious meal at school to help them learn.’
