WIREDGOV

New £20m free school meals pilot

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH News Release issued by COI News Distribution Service. 24 September 2008

Primary school children in deprived areas will be given free healthy school meals in a £20 million drive to cut obesity and get young people eating more healthily, Health Secretary Alan Johnson and Secretary of State for Children Ed Balls announced today.

Local Authorities in deprived areas are being invited to bid to take part in a two year pilot which will look at the health benefits of free school meals. It will investigate whether free school meals:

* reduce obesity / have an impact on a child's BMI;

* change eating habits at home;

* impact on behaviour and academic performance at school;

* improve school standards; and

* improve general health and well being.

Three Local Authorities in deprived areas will take part in the two year pilot. Two authorities will trial free school lunches to all primary school children while in the third area the eligibility rules will be extended. We will be testing each pilot against a control group where current free school meal eligibility is maintained.

Since the introduction of nutritional standards for school food, all school lunches are now healthier than ever. But less that half (43.6 per cent) of primary school children sit down for a cooked school meal. This means many children are missing out on a healthy meal which, for some, could be the only hot meal of the day.

Reasons for not taking a school lunch vary but, for many families, particularly low income families, the reason is cost. The cost of one school meal is £1.66.

Mr Johnson said:

"Local initiatives such as that in Hull seem to show that children who eat a healthy lunch are more likely to be better behaved, better able to learn and more likely to see their general health improve. But we need solid evidence from a nationally-assessed pilot - that's why we're investing £20 million over two years in this study.

"For many children from poorer backgrounds, a school lunch is their only hot and healthy meal of the day so we need to investigate how we increase uptake. This isn't just about making sure primary school children have a healthy meal today - it's about getting them into a habit of healthy eating for the rest of their lives and about changing the health of a generation."

Ed Balls said:

"We want a healthy lunch at school not just for some, but for every child. And we want to make sure that children, particularly children from disadvantaged backgrounds who need it most, are getting a free hot meal every school day.

"Over the last couple of years there has been a revolution in school lunches. Hundreds of schools are leading the way in creating high quality food in a proper dining culture, with high-quality canteens; stay-on-site policies where possible; good lunchtime organisation, including cutting queues by staggering lunch times; effective diet and nutrition education; and actively involving young people in drawing up menus.

"These trials will show us whether making the lunches free in primary schools does, in fact, improve behaviour, school and results and healthy eating at home."

The Departments for Health and Children, Schools and Families have allocated £20 million over the next two years (2009-2010 and 2010-2011). Local Authorities and Primary Care Trusts will be asked to bid to join the pilots on the basis of matched funding, resulting in a total budget of £40 million per year for the two years.

Last week Ed Balls published a new cookbook - Real Meals - which is designed to help children understand the basics of cookery.

Obesity is the biggest health challenge we face, as the Foresight report made clear last year. It causes 9,000 people to die prematurely every year. It costs the NHS £4.2 billion and the economy £16 billion per year.

The Government will shortly be launching a new movement to tackle obesity and help people to live healthier lives. Change4Life is a national movement that will help us all to change the way we live. This is not just about treating people already experiencing problems. This is about all of us starting to change the way we live, the way we eat and the way we raise our children so we can prevent obesity and related diseases.

Notes to editors

1. The recipes and a copy of the book can be downloaded or ordered for free here: http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=productdetails&PageMode=publications&ProductId=DCSF-00685-2008&

2 Local authorities will be invited to bid to take part in the pilot. Only local authorities in deprived areas will be considered. The pilot will run for two years beginning in September 2009, with the option of extending it into a third year.

3. Feedback from a study in Hull indicates that two to three years is probably the optimum timeframe for any pilot, as this allows sufficient time to maximise take-up levels and allows time for measurable benefits to emerge (in particular changes to BMI, but also general health and wellbeing, changes of eating habits at home and behaviour changes).

4. The objective will be to gather evidence on the effectiveness of free school meals provision, including cost effectiveness, for use by local authorities and PCTs. We know that some areas are already testing some approaches already - we want to ensure that the pilots make this learning available to all areas.

5. 15.9 per cent of primary pupils (658,910 pupils) and 13.1 per cent of secondary pupils (429,700 pupils) are known to be eligible for Free School Meals (FSMs), based on current rules - income support, income based job seekers allowance, child tax credits (where annual incomes do not exceed £15,575), guaranteed element of state pension credit or a letter of support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999). 82 per cent (544,370 pupils) of those primary pupils eligible for FSMs take up their entitlement and 73 per cent (314,630 pupils) of eligible secondary pupils.