Sharon Hodgson MP: Primary free school meals scheme proves we must expand the policy across the country

Their findings evidence what I have been arguing for my entire parliamentary career – for free school meals to be universal for all children throughout the country. As Chair of the School Food APPG, I have made major inroads in making this issue a priority for several governments since setting it up in 2010.

This work contributed to the introduction of the universal infant free school meals via the Liberal Democrats and the School Food Plan. Since then, I have been campaigning for this to be made universal. Our Labour Mayor’s decision to extend this policy to all London state-educated primary school children last year therefore brought me much hope that we are on the right path. But we must not stop now.

The report highlighted that low income families unsurprisingly benefited the most. Introduced to help families mitigate the Cost-of-Living crisis, the policy has shown to positively counter these effects – allowing families to use money that would have otherwise been used for food to help cover other essential costs. Therefore it is clear that UPFSM keeps children fed as well as easing the financial strain on families.

As it stands, free school meals are means-tested in England which means that your children are eligible if your annual house income is £7,400 or less. However, there are many issues with this threshold criteria.

It is absurd to claim that families with an annual house income of say £9,000 are not financially struggling. If we are going to means-test, the threshold set should at least be fair. The report highlights this – families who were struggling financially, but were not entitled to free school meals, benefited most from this policy. This highlights a failure of the current eligibility criteria to identify those most in need of support.

As someone who was on free school meals their whole school life, I reject that means-testing – irrespective of the threshold – will ever be fair or workable. I have spoken to parents and children extensively on this and I can confidently conclude that the only thing means-testing achieves is stigmatisation.

Indeed, the report found that prior to the policy some children had felt embarrassed about what was in their lunchboxes. This sense of shame has been eradicated in London thanks to this common-sense policy which has provided a whopping 80,000 primary-age children living in poverty in London with a free school meal.

We must see England come into line with London to reach par with Scotland and Wales who have also committed to this vision. As well as others across the globe from Finland to India and Brazil. If not ahead of the game, we should at least be catching up to the best.

There is plenty in politics that we can all disagree on, but where the health and wellbeing of our children are concerned, we should always find consensus.