Breakfast clubs ringfenced
Councillors passed on the idea to axe their flagship school breakfast clubs in a drive to save money.
there was agreement across the political board on Friday that the breakfast clubs - a flagship policy in West Lothian - should be protected from council cutbacks.
also off the table when it comes to cutbacks is means testing for free school meals at special schools, the removal of school crossing patrols during lunchtimes and a review of funding for gala days.
they were among dozens of suggestions put up for discussion at Friday’s meeting of the council’s partnership and resources policy development and scrutiny panel. Collectively the policies taken off the table cost the council around £800,000 a year.
selected details of the discussion paper had been published online a few days before the meeting and there was anger among councillors at the suggestion that the breakfast clubs had been earmarked for closure.
in one column on the discussion document titled Justification for assessment of scope for additional savings. it said :“this service is not statutory. it was introduced to ensure children were given the opportunity to receive a breakfast at the start of the day. since this provision was introduced the scottish government have provided funding to ensure all p1 to p3 children can access a meal time without cost.”
depute leader of the council, Kirsteen sullivan, said the breakfast club, and other initiatives were“red lines”for Labour.
Writing on her Facebook page, the councillor said:“as such it was recommended to officers that these suggestion should not be progressed. snp and tory councillors agreed with Labour’s position.”
and speaking at tuesday’s meeting of the Council Executive, Councillor sullivan referred to the online publication of the committee papers and said:“i do finding it upsetting that there was some attempt to mislead parents in West Lothian.”
the breakfast club funding appeared in more than 50 pages of ideas compiled in a report by the head of finance and property services on potential additional savings to address the budget gap of £5.2m by 2022/23.
the suggestions included input from the public as part of the transforming Your Council process. the council received 7026 responses and over 45,000 comments from the tYC consultation.