Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department's funding to primary schools for free breakfast clubs is intended to cover at least 75% of the actual cost of provision.

Schools which are part of the breakfast clubs early adopter programme will receive funding from April 2025 to cover food, delivery and staffing costs. The final amount each school will receive is dependent on take-up of the breakfast club and school characteristics. The department has used existing programmes and costs to determine the funding rates and this has been tested and refined with a number of schools.

The new breakfast club scheme uses a different funding model compared to the existing national school breakfast programme (NSBP), which only covers the cost of 75% of food. Under the existing programme, schools are required to contribute the remaining 25% for food, plus staffing and other overheads. The new scheme will provide substantially more funding than the NSBP.

One function of the early adopters is to test how schools utilise the funding and understand what support schools need to deliver their free and universal clubs.

Based on analysis of this existing provision, we are confident that the total funding will enable schools to meet the minimum expectations.