Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Debate between Baroness Walmsley and Baroness Smith of Malvern(1 week, 5 days ago)
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Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
My point was that linking free school meal entitlement to universal credit will make it much easier both for families to apply and for us to monitor the levels. However, I will respond to the noble Lord on his specific point.
Baroness Walmsley (LD)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her reply and all noble Lords who have spoken in favour of this important group of amendments. I assure the Minister that, as I have said today and last week, I very much welcome the expansion of eligibility for free school meals.
On Amendment 189, it is important that when the Government come, as the Minister has promised they will, to monitor the uptake under the new eligibility rules, there is enough detail in there. My amendment mentions demographics, regional differences and cultural differences and so on. All that would give a good and useful set of information to help the Government to develop policy even further.
I am not going to go on any further about free school meals—I could go on all night. The noble Baroness, Lady Stedman-Scott, resisted it and so will I. I beg to withdraw the amendment.
Children’s Rights
Debate between Baroness Walmsley and Baroness Smith of Malvern(5 months, 1 week ago)
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Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
My noble friend is right that we must consider children’s rights in all our policy-making, and the Government recognise the importance of considering children’s rights in that way. That is why, in the department, we are continuing to encourage policymakers across government to carry out children’s rights impact assessments when they are making policy changes and, with respect to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we have conducted child’s rights impact assessments where children are directly impacted by the policies, or where there are particular groups of children and young people more likely to be affected than others, and we will publish those child’s rights impact assessments.
Baroness Walmsley (LD)
My Lords, is the Minister aware that the most recent UN assessment of the UK’s compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child expressed concern about the large number of children living in food insecurity and recommended
“increasing social benefits to reflect the rising cost of living”?
In light of this, why has the value of free school meals not risen in line with the cost of food? In real terms, it is now worth 16% less than it was in 2014.
Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
The noble Baroness is right that, for many families and children, the availability of free school meals is very important. That is why we continue with the programme for all pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2 to be entitled to universal infant free school meals. In addition to that, 2.1 million disadvantaged pupils receive free meals on the basis of low income. This Government will also introduce breakfast clubs in every primary school. We will keep our approach to free meals and the quality and amount of them under continued review, including through the work of the Child Poverty Taskforce.