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.