Written evidence from the Children’s Society (SHP0007)

The Children’s Society is a national charity that runs local services, helping children and young people when they are at their most vulnerable, and have nowhere left to turn. We also engage with decision makers to help disadvantaged families get the support they need to escape poverty and give their children the best start in life.

We know that children are often acutely aware of financial household pressures, even when parents try to protect their children from the worst effects of poverty. The school holidays can mean increased costs for low income families, finding extra money for meals, activities and childcare. Children in low income families may also hide their own needs and wants, pretending to parents and friends that they don’t want certain items, to reduce pressure on household finances.

We welcome the announcement made in May 2019 in which the Department for Education confirmed that the 2018 initiative to provide free meals and activities for children over the summer holidays would be expanded in 2019. We urge the government to continue funding initiatives such as this to help children from low income families enjoy their school holidays.

Our submission is based on our policy analysis, research and our participative work with children and young people living in poverty. For more information about our submission, please contact Becky Jacques, Policy Officer on rebecca.jacques@childrenssociety.org.uk or 020 7841 4400.

Free School Meals

Free school meals are worth around £400 a year per child[i] which can represent a substantial part of a struggling family’s income. Under the new Universal Credit thresholds for free school meals, we estimated that over 1 million children living in poverty would miss out on a free school meal.

We know that children living in poverty who are not eligible for free school meals often go without food during the school day. In 2014, our youth-led Children’s Commission on Poverty found that 52% of parents surveyed had struggled with the cost of school meals at least ‘occasionally’[ii]. It is likely that these parents also struggle to cover the cost of food during the holidays, meaning children will continue to miss out on a lunchtime meal during the holidays.

“I see a significant number of pupils who do not have a mid-day meal because they have no money” – Teacher

The health benefits of free school meals for children living in poverty are clear, helping with concentration and development. All children living in poverty should be entitled to free school meal, which would mean that for at least 39 weeks of the year, children receive a nutritious meal.

School Holiday Trips, Clubs and Activities

Some schools already operate systems where the school subsidises school trips or allows parents to pay in instalments. This is welcome, yet many children living in families in poverty still miss out on school-related activities during the school holidays. For example, the Birmingham Child Poverty Commission, which The Children’s Society supported, found that 30% of children in poverty miss out on school trips during the holidays.[iii]

“How isolated and vulnerable poverty can make young people feel when they can’t afford to go on expensive school trips” – young person, age 13.

Some schools also ask parents for ‘voluntary contributions’ for trips and send reminder letters home if contributions haven’t been received which can put pressure on struggling families even though contributions are non-compulsory.

In 2014, our Children’s Commission on Poverty found that the costs of school trips during holidays averaged £75 per child per year, and the average cost of summer clubs and activities was £32 per child per year[iv]. This can be a substantial cost for families living in poverty and may prevent children from taking part in activities with their peers.

The opportunity to take part in activities with friends and having access to the same material things as peers is important for children and we know that relative poverty has a greater impact on child well-being than adult well-being. If a young person from a low income family is unable to attend school trips or activities during the school holidays when they peers have these opportunities, it can negatively affect their well-being.

It is therefore vitally important that all children have opportunities to take part in activities, attend trips and clubs during the school holidays, regardless of household income.

Children in migrant families with ‘no recourse to public funds’

Research by the LSE last year highlighted that children in recent migrant families are already at a greater risk of poverty than their settled peers[v] and this is reflected in our own research and experience in supporting children in migrant families who have ‘no recourse to public funds’. Where parents are unable to access mainstream benefits because of their immigration status or the conditions placed on their leave to remain in the UK by the Home Office, children are left in extreme poverty, and in some cases destitution and homelessness because they cannot access vital benefits such as income support, universal credit, housing benefit, tax credits. As a result they are unable to access passported benefits like free school meals and pupil premium. This leads to families needing to access food banks, being unable to cook healthy, nutritious food for young children in a B&B with no kitchen, and unable to buy a satisfactory amount of food for the family. Food banks usually only support for a limited period of time and these families face the prospect of long-term destitution. In our London project all the families on support provided by local authorities under s.17 of the Children Act 1989 and those waiting for a decision from the local authority were recorded as needing food banks in order to feed their families.

Our report in 2016 ‘Making Life Impossible’ considered the destitution experienced by children as a result of their parents’ immigration status and how their needs for safety and welfare where going unmet[vi]. The research highlighted that having no recourse to public funds was leaving children, including many British children, hungry and without lunch for school, street homeless or forced to live hours from school and trapped in households engulfed by abusive relationships. More recent research by the Unity Project has highlighted the disproportionate effects of the ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) policy on women, low-income families, disabled people, pregnant (and maternity stage) women, and black and minority ethnic (BME) British children. By drawing together experiences of destitution and statistical data this study found that these disproportionate impacts amount to indirect discrimination in the case of those sharing ‘protected characteristics’[vii].

Recommendations

• The government should extend eligibility for free school meals to all children whose families are in receipt of Universal Credit to ensure that children living in poverty receive a hot, nutritious meal during term-time.
• The government should extend the eligibility for FSMs and pupil premium to children in migrant families where they are living in poverty so that children can thrive and reach their full potential regardless of their parents’ status.
• The Department for Education should continue to fund free meals and activities for disadvantaged children during the summer holidays, extending eligibility for all pupils entitled to free school meals as well as those who have ‘no recourse to public funds’ because of their parents’ status.
• Schools should allow parents to pay in instalments for all school trips, including those during the holidays and offer subsidies for low income families to ensure children do not miss out on trips, clubs and activities.
• Schools should make clear that voluntary contributions for school trips are non-compulsory and should not put pressure on parents to make payments.