‘Schools Bill’ should auto-enrol children for free school meals – Education Committee report

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• Education Committee

In a new report, the cross-party Committee makes several recommendations on ways to improve the Bill, including on ensuring that children receive mental health assessments when taken into care; improving support for care leavers to help them live independently; and on ensuring children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can access breakfast clubs. 

The Committee has also expressed disappointment with the rushed government timetable for the Bill, which prevented the Committee from undertaking scrutiny of more of the policy areas of the Bill. 

The report’s recommendations to the Department for Education (DfE) include: 

Free school meals auto-enrolment 

That all children who are entitled to free school meals (FSM) should be automatically enrolled to receive them. Children aged four to 16 may be entitled to FSM if their parents or carers receive income-related benefits such as Universal Credit. But experts told the Committee that one in 10 children who are currently eligible miss out because of language barriers or difficulty with the admin process, and that failing to legislate for auto-enrolment would be a “missed opportunity” to feed hungry children at school. 

Breakfast club inclusion for pupils with SEND 

That schools providing universal free breakfast clubs to pupils should be required “to take account explicitly of the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities”. The report says “common sense” measures should be taken, for example, to ensure that children with SEND who rely on home-to-school transport should be enabled to arrive early enough to join breakfast clubs, and that government funding should reflect this provision. 

Assess mental health of children in care 

Any child placed in care by a local authority should, according to regulation, receive a physical, mental and emotional health assessment by a registered medical practitioner. But evidence to the Committee, including from young people with lived experience, has indicated that mental health assessments often don’t take place. The report concludes that the Government should strengthen the requirement for the mental health and wellbeing of children in the care system to be assessed. 

Develop a ‘national care offer’ 

The Committee heard there is great variation between local authorities in the support offered to young people as they leave care and transition into living independently as adults. Examples include help with university accommodation, receiving help from personal advisors, help with transport costs to get to work or education, or access to apprenticeships that are reserved only for care leavers. The report recommends that the Government should develop a national care offer that is consistent across the country. 

Chair comment

Education Committee Chair Helen Hayes MP said: 

“The Committee has made recommendations designed to strengthen support for the most vulnerable children in society, based on compelling evidence from experts and from young people who shared with us their deeply moving experiences of life in care. 

“This Report urges the Government to tackle the postcode lottery of support offered to young people leaving care; to ensure that children whose parents struggle to put food on the table at home can get a proper meal at school; that children with SEND aren’t left out of breakfast clubs; and that children facing the traumatic experiences associated with being taken into care are properly cared for and their mental health assessed in a timely way. 

“While we welcome the Government’s ambition in this Bill, my colleagues and I from across the political parties were disappointed by how the Government has rushed this Bill through the House of Commons at the expense of time for proper scrutiny. With such wide-ranging reforms that will have dramatic, lasting consequences for children and families, the DfE’s need for speed should not have been prioritised over diligent examination of evidence.” 

The report also includes summaries of evidence heard regarding other provisions of the Bill, including witnesses’ view that the proposed cap on residential care providers’ profits should be used as a last resort; a range of views on the changes to academy freedoms including the repeal of academisation orders for underperforming schools; and the requirement for all working teachers to be either qualified or working towards Qualified Teacher Status. 

Further information

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