– in the Scottish Parliament at on 24 May 2023.
6. To ask the Scottish Government how much it has allocated in its budget 2023-24 for the roll-out of free school meals to all primary school pupils. (S6O-02273)
The 2023-24 budget has made provision for £185.8 million to be allocated to local authorities for free school meals. That funding supports our universal free school meal offer for all pupils in primaries 1 to 5 as well as meals for eligible pupils from P6 to secondary 6. It will also support the next phase of our expansion programme, which will see free school meals being made available to all pupils in primaries 6 and 7 in receipt of the Scottish child payment.
When I asked the then Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Shirley-Anne Somerville, about this in March, she recognised that
“a number of local authorities are facing challenges in planning for that substantial expansion of free school meals.”—[
Official Report
, 23 March 2023; c 66.]
Will the cabinet secretary outline what direct support is going where in the provision to councils to overcome such challenges? Has she given consideration to calls by organisations such as Aberlour, which asks Government to increase the eligibility threshold beyond the already promised extension to P6s and P7s in order to support low-income families?
Carol Mochan rightly points to some of the complexities around planning for the substantial expansion of free school meals, particularly around the kitchen and dining facilities required to support that. Of course, it is not a universal picture, and some schools have more challenges than others. A lot of work has been undertaken to understand that and to make sure that the resources are going to the places that they need to go to. I hope that Carol Mochan will agree that that is a sensible set of arrangements.
It is right that the expansion is focused on all pupils in primaries 6 and 7 in receipt of the Scottish child payment. I understand the position of Aberlour, but we have to do it in a way that is deliverable and affordable. That is the best place to start as we continue with our commitment to expand free school meals to all primary 6s and 7s. We are of course also still committed to the pilot in secondary schools.
I will take a brief supplementary from Monica Lennon.
More secondary schools use a cashless payment system and it is difficult for school meal debt to accrue in those settings.
What steps is the Government taking to assess the true level of hidden hunger in secondary schools, and the implementation of the school meal debt management guidance that was rolled out earlier this year?
As briefly as possible, cabinet secretary.
We rely on local authorities to ensure that they feed back any issues in relation to the guidance. We will continue to work with them to see whether any improvements can be made. They obviously have flexibility around dealing with debt in individual cases, which we would encourage them to use. Ultimately, however, it is for local authorities to advise us if there are any issues, particularly pertaining to the guidance.