At least six Welsh councils are rolling out free school meals to three youngest year groups from September.
Despite having the highest rates of child poverty in Wales, Cardiff Council are not offering year one and two pupils a free lunchtime meal next term.
A group which campaigned for the full rollout says child poverty is “a social emergency” and Wales’ biggest council must do more.
By Mark S Redfern. Cover image: cost of living protest, Cardiff, Tom Davies
The largest council in Wales has been accused by anti-poverty campaigners of not doing enough to feed children in poverty during the spiralling cost of living crisis.
Cardiff Council has within its remit some of the poorest boroughs in the country, but the authority has been outperformed by smaller councils when it comes to the rollout of free school meals from September.
People’s Assembly Wales, who helped lead the campaign for free school meals, branded the slow pace of the rollout as “unacceptable” given the pressure facing parents and carers.
“Cardiff should be the fastest council to roll out free school meals to all primary school children, not among the slowest,” a spokesperson told voice.wales.
As part of the cooperation deal between Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru, Welsh Government has pledged that all primary school children will be entitled to free school meals by 2024, with the first phase of the rollout taking place from the start of the next academic year.
As part of the plans, the youngest primary school pupils in Wales, children aged between four and five in reception, will receive free school meals from September, with those in year one and two following on from April 2023 at the latest. However, some councils are going further than others in the rollout.
Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Ceredigion, Vale of Glamorgan, Conwy and Torfaen councils have all said that year one and year two children, as well as those in reception, will receive free school meals next term, before the April 2023 deadline.
But campaigners are angry that Wales largest authority, Cardiff Council, has not made the same commitment.
The capital houses six of the ten poorest neighbourhoods in Wales when it comes to child poverty. Top of the list for the whole of Wales is South Riverside in Cardiff, where 55% children live below the poverty line, according to official data released earlier this year. The other five Cardiff areas contained in the top ten are: Butetown, 49%; Grangetown North, 45%; Grangetown South, 44%; Ely East, 43% and Splott, 42%.
But despite these figures and the devastating effects of rising energy and food bills, Cardiff Council is sticking to a deadline of April 2023 for free school meals being given to pupils in year one and two.
Welsh councils are only obligated to provide reception age children with free school meals from September, with all year one and two pupils in Wales being given meals from next April. But Welsh Government has said that councils that are able to provide year one and two children with free school meals earlier than April will get the financial support to do so.
This has led campaigners who successfully fought for the implementation of free school meals across Wales to question why Cardiff’s approach is moving at a slower pace.
“Every lever [should be] used by the Welsh Government and Cardiff Council to ensure a fast roll out, even if it means ploughing in extra resources compared to other councils to make it happen,” People’s Assembly Wales said.
The group, who along with anti-poverty organisations such as the Bevan Foundation and the Child Poverty Action Group lobbied Welsh Government on the issue throughout the pandemic, said that such extreme levels of child poverty in the capital “should be treated as a social emergency” by the council and acted upon by Welsh Government if needed.
“It is unacceptable that Wales’ largest local authority, Cardiff Council, appears to be one of the slowest in rolling out free school meals,” they said.
The cost of living crisis has spurred some smaller Welsh councils into going faster than Welsh Government’s timeline, with many extending the provisions to extra children from next term as parents struggle with historic financial pressures. On Thursday, the money advice expert Martin Lewis warned that household energy bills would soar by 64% in October, just a month after the school year begins.
Blaenau Gwent Council, one of those implementing the wider policy, told voice.wales that they were “fully supportive of the initiative to offer free school meals to all primary school children across Wales” and have previously confirmed the provision will be offered to reception, year one and year two pupils from next term.
“We have had a project team working on this to ensure we are prepared and have been busy recruiting and training additional catering staff, upgrading school kitchens and electrical power supplies where necessary, to meet additional capacity requirements,” Blaenau Gwent Council said.
The Welsh Government has said that they have “committed £225 million to support councils with rollout and delivery”, though a source within Cardiff Council said that communication between Welsh Government and Cardiff Council had been scant when it came to the rollout.
Sue Leader is a resident of Ely, an area in Cardiff with the eighth highest child poverty rate in Wales, and an activist with Unite Community who joined the campaign for free school meals.
She told voice.wales that people in the community were afraid of what the winter would bring in terms of financial pressures, and that the rollout had to happen sooner.
“We live in uncertain times, not sure how much heating and light will cost by the end of the year, a lot of us not being able to keep up with the cost before the increase,” she said. “How will we manage?”
She said she intended to take the issue up with Cardiff Council directly: “We lobbied hard so kids could get at least one hot meal a day in them…[Cardiff Council] have a chance to invest in our future now, by feeding kids at school.”
“This now will make us even more financially excluded.”
First Minister Mark Drakeford had been given a roadmap to overcoming some of the logistical issues of the rollout by influential Welsh thinktank the Bevan Foundation back in April this year in their Pledge to Plate report.
Among the suggestions to officials tasked with the policy change was to include healthy cold meals and to serve meals in classrooms as well as lunch halls to overcome possible capacity issues, as well as a plea to think innovatively for a quicker rollout during a time of crisis.
People’s Assembly Wales said that “while there are genuine logistical issues around kitchens and staff, the Welsh Government 2024 date for free school meals to be rolled out to all primary school children is unacceptable.”
“The cost of living crisis is exploding now. The Bevan Foundation’s ‘From Pledge to Plate’ report gives useful ideas of creative ways that the Welsh Government could ensure all children are fed, if there was political will,” a spokesperson for the group said.
Cardiff Council have said that the “majority of reception children will be offered free school meals from the new autumn term onwards” and that work is being carried out in many of the city’s primary schools so that kitchens are able to cater for a significantly greater number of pupils.
“In response to the current rising cost-of-living, we are committed to implementing the scheme as efficiently as possible,” they said. “Our teams are working to build on catering capacity across the city, so that through a phased approach and with Welsh Government agreement, we can work towards rolling the scheme out to all primary aged children over the next three years.”
