Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support (a) pre-school, (b) primary school and (c) secondary school-aged children living in poverty other than through the provision of free school meals.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances for every child. For too many children, living in poverty robs them of the opportunity to learn and to prosper.

The Ministerial Child Poverty Taskforce will harness all available levers to drive forward action across government to reduce child poverty. More detail on the approach and priorities for the strategy is set out in the publication ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing our Strategy’, which was published on 23 October and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-child-poverty-developing-our-strategy.

The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will put children and their wellbeing at the centre of the education and children’s social care systems, and make sure every child has a fulfilling childhood, enabling them to achieve and thrive.

Breakfast clubs will remove barriers to opportunity by ensuring primary school children, no matter their circumstance, are well prepared with a supportive start to the school day. This will help to drive improvements in behaviour, attendance and attainment, and provide families with more affordable childcare choices. This will also support families, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

This government sees the early years as central to our mission to give every child the best start in life and in the 2025/26 financial year expect to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, to help even more families access affordable, high quality childcare and early education. We have also announced a new £75 million expansion grant, to be allocated later this year, to support nurseries, childminders and other providers to deliver the 35,000 additional staff and 70,000 places required to meet demand for next September.

High quality early education leads to better outcomes for all children, but is particularly impactful for those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), where early identification of needs and support can help them to thrive.

Families of 2 year olds in receipt of certain benefits can access 15 hours of early education and care per week, over 38 weeks a year, and all 3 and 4 year olds are eligible for 15 hours of early education. Further support for disadvantaged children is available through Early Years Pupil Premium. This government will also be delivering the largest ever uplift to the Early Years Pupil Premium, increasing rates by over 45% to up to £570 per eligible child per year. This unprecedented increase is an investment in quality early education for those children who need it most, in the areas that need it most.

To respond to parents’ concerns about the cost of school, as committed in the King’s Speech, we will legislate to limit the number of costly branded items of uniform schools can require, ensuring uniforms make children smarter not families poorer.

In addition to free school meals (FSM), schools continue to receive the pupil premium grant, worth over £2.9 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, to support the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils. Also this year, all 153 local authorities in England have continued to deliver the Holiday and Activities Food programme during Easter, summer and Christmas holidays. The programme provides heathy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefiting their health, wellbeing and learning. It is primarily targeted at children who receive benefits-related FSM, however local authorities also have the flexibility to use some of their funding to target other vulnerable children.