Labour unveils breakfast clubs across the UK - is your child eligible?
Thousands of children across England will get free access to breakfast clubs from April, according to new plans set out by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Speaking at the Labour Conference in Liverpool, Reeves said up to 750 schools in England would be offered the chance to take part in the initiative next year, with plans to later rollout the scheme to all schools in the country.
What are the details?
Where will the breakfast clubs be?
The breakfast clubs will be available at 750 state-funded primary schools across England in the first phase of the rollout, the chancellor said.
The plan would work collaboratively with schools, businesses and charities to test the delivery of the breakfast club programme ahead of the wider national rollout.
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When will they be up and running?
A spokesman for the chancellor said the pilot would cover the period between April and July in the 2025 summer term before its expansion “as soon as possible,” potentially as early as September.
Schools are able to apply to be part of the early adopter pilot scheme on the government website.
Who is eligible?
The Department for Education has not yet specified exactly who will be eligible for this breakfast club programme, but it said it was an additional scheme on top of the current national school breakfast programme.
The current programme offers all pupils in participating schools breakfast supplies at no cost to them or their parents.
“I will judge my time in office a success if I know that at the end of it there are working-class kids from ordinary backgrounds who lead richer lives, their horizons expanded, and able to achieve and thrive in Britain today," Reeves said in her speech.
How much will it cost?
Schools participating in the current breakfast club scheme receive a 75% subsidy for the food and delivery costs of breakfast club provisions, with schools contributing 25% of costs.
The new plan laid out by the chancellor was backed by £7 million of funding and the Department for Education, but the government has not yet provided details on how much the scheme would cost.
What has been the response?
Campaigners said breakfast clubs alone would not address child poverty.
Becca Lyon, head of UK child poverty at Save the Children UK, said that if the chancellor "is serious about helping working-class kids from ordinary backgrounds" then they need to "remove barriers like scrapping the two-child limit to Universal Credit”.
Child Poverty Action chief executive Alison Garnham described breakfast clubs as "a welcome start" but said much more needed to be done.
“And even with a pledge of no return to the past, austerity is the reality for more and more children as they’re hit by the two-child limit. The policy must be scrapped – and soon – if the government is to deliver on its mission to reduce child poverty.”
Shadow chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “The last few months – and today’s speech – were a big opportunity to set out plans to grow the economy. The Chancellor once again wasted it with discredited attacks on the Opposition.
“That is not governing – and business confidence is now vanishing as a result.”
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