Border Telegraph | News | 'We can't afford free school meals'

Friday, 5th December, 2008

Published: Wednesday, 8th October, 2008 09:00

'We can't afford free school meals' - SBC

By Alexa Brown

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PLANS to provide free school meals to all children in the first three years of Primary school went down like lumpy custard in the Borders this week, as Scottish Borders Council said they simply couldn’t afford the new scheme.

SNP Education minister Fiona Hyslop announced the plans on Friday, but this week SBC were one of sixteen local authorities who said they would have to cut other services to pay for the lunches.

The Scottish Executive estimated the meals will cost councils around £30 million a year.

An agreement signed by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities pledged to provide free school meals in Scottish schools from 2010 if a pilot scheme in five council areas was given the thumbs up.

Borders schools piloted the scheme earlier in the year, but it led to a mixed message from the council.

While a SBC spokesperson said the pilot was a ‘success’, some councillors have instead suggested that free school meals should be provided for children from the poorest families, rather than automatically for all children in primaries one to three.

Executive member for Education, Councillor Catriona Bhatia added: "Whilst the pilot saw an uptake in school meals, it is questionable as to whether giving free meals to P1-3 is the best use of resources, especially when budgets are so tight.

“If there are additional funds they should be used to extend the eligibility for free school meals to those most in need, something which is particularly pertinent when families on low incomes are feeling the effects of rising food and energy costs in their own homes.”

But, South of Scotland MSP Christine Grahame said: “I welcome the proposal to extend school meals. Many parents of children on the pilot scheme have contacted me and the feedback I have received has been great.

“In these hard pressed times for families I think these free school meals will provide much needed savings. If you have two or three children in school, this scheme will save parents a significant amount of money.”

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JimS

Oct 8 08 14:46

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Some questions and answers that will help readers:

Are free school meals improving nutrition and the health of our children? YES

Was it a success in the Scottish Borders? YES

Will SBC have to cut services to pay for it? NO

Why not? Because the Scottish Government has already allocated £40m to fund the policy and ALL Councils AGREED before the pilots started that if they proved successful they would back them.

So why is the Liberal Education person opposed to them now? Cheap politics that will damage children’s health.

Does COSLA, the body that represents Scotland’s councils opposed to free school meals? No. In fact CoSLA’s President Pat Watters said there was no justification for Councils to cut services to pay for free school meals because the money is in place to pay for them.

Are the Liberals just desperate then? Desperate and daft. The Borders has the lowest average wages in the country, a position which local Lib Dem spokespeople have described as a "positive position"... The vast majority of Borders families will benefit from this policy, but the Lib Dums would rather we suffer so they can create more lies about the "evil" SNP.

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