Hardship is ‘far from over’ as school meal vouchers to continue EAST RIDING COUNCIL SAID IT
WAS ‘COMMITTED’ TO HELPING
EAST Riding free school meal families will get £15 vouchers this October half-term as financial hardship facing them is “far from over”, the council’s children’s portfolio holder has said.
East Riding Council’s Children and Young People portfolio holder Cllr Victoria Aitken said the authority would use its share of a new government support fund to finance the vouchers.
But the portfolio holder added the vouchers would be sent out after the amount of eligible children locally has risen from 7,757 to 8,275 since last year.
The council first launched the vouchers last October following a high profile campaign from footballer Marcus Rashford.
Cllr Aitken said the East Riding received £1.175m from the Government to fund free school meal payments in the last year.
The Government has announced councils will be able to claim from a £500m Household Support Fund from this month, aimed at residents still struggling in the wake of the pandemic.
Cllr Aitken said: “The increase in the number of eligible children is coupled with the ongoing financial impact on families which is far from over.
“We’re working with our officers to ensure the council can continue to provide financial support.
“We’re committed to helping pupils going forward The government’s Household Support Fund
“We first made the decision to support families with children eligible for free school meals last October.
“We began by making direct payments to those families, a support grant was made available to them for the Christmas and Easter holidays.
“The council continued its support through the May half term, the grants were £15 per eligible child and we know they’ve been of significant help to families.
“The payments have been made by bank transfer and supermarket vouchers, distributed with help from schools.
“Eligible families whose children attended school outside the East
Riding were asked to contact our education service directly.”
Wednesday, October 6, saw a full council meeting where Cllr Aitken reported on her work on supporting schools during coronavirus and ongoing efforts to improve children’s services.
Ofsted ordered urgent improvements to the service in March 2020 following an inspection and has since stated that progress is being made but further work is needed.
The council is also currently working to clear a backlog in updating education plans for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) children.
Cllr Aitken said it was “reassuring” that Ofsted had noted improvements but she added finding staff for children’s services remained a “challenge”.
Cllr Aitken said: “I have been visiting schools in the East Riding and I want to visit more so I can understand what’s working well and what needs improving.
“The council’s children’s services are on a journey of improvement, our teams are working on that and we’re working with our partners including the police, health professionals and the NHS.
“Our teams are currently managing around 18,000 contacts a year related to looked after children a year in the East Riding.
“On SEND plans, we’re working with partners including parents of SEND children and members of the Parent Carer Forum so that future improvements meet the needs of residents.
“We’re moving into the implementation phase of that, but our plans are ambitious and far reaching so they won’t happen overnight.
“The recruitment of experienced and capable staff remains a challenge, it’s something other local authorities both regionally and nationally are also facing.
“We’re striving for children and young people to have the best life chances they can, part of that means embracing opportunities for young people that will come with economic developments coming to the region.”