Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will include Previously Looked After Children in the definition of disadvantaged children, in regard to the core eligibility criteria for the Holiday Activity and Food programme.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme provides free nutritious meals, enriching activities, and safe environments to eligible children during the school holidays, benefiting their health, wellbeing and readiness to learn. The core purpose of the programme is to support children and young people who are eligible for free school meals (FSM) given that children from low-income households are more likely to experience food insecurity, reduced physical activity, and fewer opportunities for enriching experiences during the school holidays.
Local authorities have discretion to allocate 15% of their funding to provide free or subsidised holiday club places for school-age children who do not meet the eligibility criteria but who the local authority believe could benefit from HAF.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that primary schools offer a broad range of after school clubs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government is committed to ensuring that all children and young people across England can access a variety of enrichment opportunities at school, including after school clubs, as part of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity. A new Enrichment Framework will be published this academic year. It will set out benchmarks to help schools and colleges plan high-quality enrichment more strategically, with case studies and signposting to tools and resources. The framework will support schools to provide accessible and inclusive enrichment opportunities to those less likely to participate, such as pupils on free school meals.
Asked by: Jen Craft (Labour - Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance she provides to secondary schools on the identification of speech and language needs in children entering the school from primary education.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
To ensure teachers can support children before needs escalate, we will develop National Inclusion Standards that set out evidence-informed tools, strategies and approaches for educators to draw on to identify and support children and young people with additional needs.
The department is also introducing the Experts at Hand offer, backed by around £1.8 billion, to give schools direct access to support, advice, training, and specialist expertise from professionals including speech and language therapists (SaLTs) and specialist teachers. These experts will work alongside school staff, building skills and confidence to identify needs early and respond effectively. New SaLT advanced practitioners will be responsible for bridging the gap between clinical and education settings, so that more SaLTs are specifically supporting children and young people. We are also investing in upskilling SaLT support workers, who can provide some of the more routine support in mainstream settings.
The department continues to invest in the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme, under the Best Start in Life strategy, which has demonstrated significant impact on oral language and early literacy, particularly for disadvantaged pupils. Evaluation has found that children who receive NELI make, on average, four months of additional progress in oral language skills, and seven months for those children on free school meals. Funding has been confirmed until the 2028/29 academic year (subject to further spending rounds).
The government is also investing £200 million to give every teacher the training they need to better support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). This new training offer will cover children with SEND in their earliest years through to age 25, restoring parents’ confidence that their children will be supported throughout every stage of their education. This new inclusion training offer builds on improvements to existing programmes, such as the new Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework, which contains significantly more content on adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with SEND.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings of the report by Magic Breakfast, Root causes of child morning hunger, published on 9 March, in particular the conclusions on the impact of morning hunger on pupils' readiness to learn, attainment and attendance in secondary schools.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We appreciate publication of the report and will keep up the work with Magic Breakfast and other valued stakeholders as we continue to roll out the free breakfast club programme to all schools with primary-aged pupils across England.
The government is committed to tackling child poverty and delivering meaningful action to support children and families. We recognise the importance of a healthy breakfast at the start of the day for pupils and the impact this can have on attendance and readiness to learn. This is why we are rolling out free breakfast clubs, so that all children, regardless of background, can have the best start in life. Since April 2025, the programme has delivered 8.5 million meals to almost 180,000 pupils across the country. We have also invested a further £80 million to fund approximately 2,000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027, with over 500 of those now delivering.
We have also committed to continued funding of breakfast provision from September 2026 for secondary schools in disadvantaged areas which are currently participating in the National School Breakfast Programme.
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon and Consett)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce levels of inequality for children in poverty.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Tackling child poverty is a moral mission for this Government. Your background should not determine what you can go on to achieve in life. Inequality and poverty are barriers to opportunity.
We want to improve the life chances for every child. That’s why we have already scrapped the two-child limit and are investing in children’s future through childcare, Best Start Family Hubs, breakfast clubs and expansion of free school meals. Overall, our Child Poverty Strategy will deliver the largest reduction in child poverty within a single Parliament.
Asked by: Natasha Irons (Labour - Croydon East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many pupils in year 10 were eligible for free school meals by constituency in 2024-25.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The number of pupils eligible for free school meals is published annually in the Schools, Pupils and their Characteristics accredited official statistics here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25. The table in the attachment shows the number of pupils in year 10 in England who were eligible for free school meals in the 2024/25 academic year, by parliamentary constituency.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of local authorities piloting community eligibility, or open access, for the Holiday Activities and Food programme in more deprived areas.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The holiday activities and food (HAF) programme provides free nutritious meals, enriching activities, and safe environments to children and young people from low-income families during the school holidays, benefiting their health, wellbeing and readiness to learn.
Local authorities and their providers have flexibility in how they deliver provision to best serve the needs of young people in their area. The department’s published HAF guidance encourages all local authorities to have a varied mix of provision that caters for different ages and interests, including through collaboration with relevant local organisations. We are aware that several local authorities are utilising different delivery models for HAF to better suit the needs and interests of teenagers, including the HAF Plus model, which features an App
There have been several successful pilots within the HAF programme in collaboration with participating local authorities to further test what works in practice and develop innovative approaches to supporting children and young people We will continue to consider potential future pilots.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether local authorities in England have received from the Department for Education information on how they can implement the HAF Plus model of the Holiday Activities and Food programme.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The holiday activities and food (HAF) programme provides free nutritious meals, enriching activities, and safe environments to children and young people from low-income families during the school holidays, benefiting their health, wellbeing and readiness to learn.
Local authorities and their providers have flexibility in how they deliver provision to best serve the needs of young people in their area. The department’s published HAF guidance encourages all local authorities to have a varied mix of provision that caters for different ages and interests, including through collaboration with relevant local organisations. We are aware that several local authorities are utilising different delivery models for HAF to better suit the needs and interests of teenagers, including the HAF Plus model, which features an App
There have been several successful pilots within the HAF programme in collaboration with participating local authorities to further test what works in practice and develop innovative approaches to supporting children and young people We will continue to consider potential future pilots.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of expanding secondary school breakfast provision in (a) Yeovil constituency, (b) Somerset and (c) England.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Through our Opportunity Mission, this government will ensure that all children get the best start in life. We are committed to rolling out free breakfast clubs in all schools with primary-aged pupils, helping to build strong foundations in the first years of school. It is right that we start from supporting the youngest children.
The National School Breakfast Programme (NSBP) is an inherited scheme from the previous government, providing subsidised breakfast food only to schools in disadvantaged areas via a national supplier, Family Action. This contract will end in July 2026.
In November 2025, we announced that all NSBP-participating schools with primary-aged pupils had been offered a place on the free breakfast club programme from September 2026. We also confirmed that all NSBP schools with secondary-aged pupils will continue to be supported to an equivalent value for the 2026/27 academic year so that these schools can continue to offer breakfast to their pupils.
Further details will be provided to these secondary schools in due course.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a statutory right to food for people in poverty.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
While the right to food is not codified in UK domestic law, the Government is taking action to improve access to good, nutritious food.
We have announced action to expand free school meals, support parents with the cost of healthy food in the school holidays with the Holidays and Activities and Food Programme and launched the Crisis and Resilience Fund, which enables local authorities to design schemes that address food poverty.