Free school meals scheme ‘does not work’
VOLUNTARY organisations are providing food for children because the free school meals system set up by the Government “doesn’t work”.
North Durham MP Kevan Jones has written to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson urging him to fix the system introduced to help lower-income families during the coronavirus lockdown.
He said: “What the government should have done is engage with local authorities to organise free school meals. Instead they’ve gone with this private sector system which doesn’t work.”
The Government scheme is designed to help the 1.3m children who would usually be eligible for free school meals but cannot receive them because schools are closed during the lockdown.
Parents instead receive regular food vouchers worth £15 per child per week, which they can spend in supermarkets.
Teachers have to upload data onto a website before parents can apply for vouchers, but there are reports of staff waiting in hour-long queues just to log in.
Vouchers can take more than a week to arrive. There is also concern that parents who do not have access to the internet or are not confident using online services are unable to apply for vouchers, and they may not be able to receive them if they do have an email address.
The scheme is run by French corporate services group Edenred on behalf of the Department for Education.
When The Chronicle attempted to use the website as a parent this morning, we were directed to a web-page that said: “You are being held in a queue. The average waiting time yesterday was under 30 minutes - thank you for your patience.”
Mr Jones said: “I had a constituent on yesterday who waited nearly four hours and she still couldn’t get on it.
“People need to log on and register, and it’s just not working. In North Durham it’s meant voluntary organisations are providing meals to some of these kids. The Durham County Council has also stepped in to provide meals.
“It’s a system that’s been dreamt up in Whitehall. They would have been far better off giving the money to local authorities to organise it, because they know where the kids are.”
He has written to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson urging him to take “urgent action to improve the situation for schools and families in my constituency.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We continue to encourage schools to work with their suppliers to arrange food parcels or collections for families eligible for free school meals. Where this is not possible, a national scheme was launched for schools to provide supermarket vouchers.
“As of Monday 27 April, Edenred reported that over £29m worth of voucher codes had been into supermarket gift cards by schools and families.
“There are also some outstanding examples of where schools across the county are using their local FSM offer to continue to keep in contact with the children who need support most.”