£600m free school meals scheme ‘just making pupils fat’
THE Government’s £600million free school meals scheme is failing to make children healthier or significantly boost their grades, new figures suggest.
The costly initiative to provide nutritious hot lunches to all pupils in the first three years of primary school was launched two years ago, with supporters claiming that it could help cut obesity and raise academic standards.
But an analysis of tens of thousands of children shows it has had little impact on either, and may even have resulted in children getting fatter.
Critics of the scheme said it was ‘expensive gesture politics’ and called for the money to be spent on other areas of education.
The initiative was launched by the Coalition Government in 2014 to encourage pupils to switch from eating packed lunches of sandwiches, crisps and fizzy drinks.
At the high-profile launch, the then Deputy Prime Minister, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, said studies had shown that pupils who ate proper lunches were up to two months ahead in their work compared to those who preferred packed lunches of sandwiches and sweets.
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is also a fan. Last year he backed doctors who warned that the obesity crisis would worsen if free meals were scrapped.
Now official figures obtained by The Mail on Sunday for two pioneering London boroughs, Newham and Islington – where it was decided five years ago to introduce the scheme for all primary school children – have undermined these claims.
The NHS figures reveal that 24.7 per cent of pupils who left Newham
‘Money would be better spent on education itself’
primaries in 2011 were classed as obese, while for leavers in 2015, who had enjoyed five years of free meals, the percentage had risen to 27.4.
In Islington, the proportion of obese 11-year-olds was 21.8 per cent in 2011, but rose to 22.8 per cent in 2015. In London primary schools as a whole, the figure went from 21.9 per cent to 22.6 per cent in the same period.
Judged by the results of national English and maths SATs tests taken by all 11-year-olds, the two boroughs made limited progress in raising pupils’ academic attainment, compared to the London average.
In 2011, 67 per cent of 11-year-olds in Newham reached the required standard. That rose to 84 per cent by 2015, and children’s scores in Islington jumped by almost the same amount.
But the proportions also went up by similar levels in London as a whole.
The figures echo a 2012 report based on pilot studies for the Department for Education, which found that although children ate fewer of the fatty and sugary items often found in lunch boxes, they made up for it by eating more roast potatoes and chips in cooked school meals.
The new report by the social research institute NatCen also said that children who previously had a packed lunch at school and a hot meal at home in the evening were eating extra food because they now had two cooked meals a day.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: ‘The Government’s free meals scheme is expensive gesture politics. In these straitened times, the money would be much better spent on education itself.
‘There is no evidence of any impact on obesity, nor would much be expected given everything involved in a child’s weight.
‘Children spend a relatively small part of their lives at school, so any obesity will be down to their whole way of life with their families, not just those few hours in school.’
A spokesman for Newham said that despite being among the most deprived boroughs in England, its SATs results had ‘consistently improved to beat the England average and match the London average’. He added that Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw ‘had praised Newham’s approach in delivering this type of success’.
Islington Council leader Richard Watts said: ‘Teachers tell us that children’s behaviour and concentration have improved and Islington’s SATs results are increasing slightly faster than the London and national average.’
The Department for Education said: ‘About 1.3million more children are enjoying a free, nutritious meal, saving families hundreds of pounds, and, along with our new School Food Standards, establishing healthy eating habits for life.’