The Royal College of Nursing, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and Royal College of Physicians are the latest to backlash against the controversial move, saying the scheme would have lifted 50,000 young people out of poverty and cut education and health inequalities by giving them more nutritious lunches.
Jettisoning the proposals introduced by the Labour government also meant thousands of unemployed parents – whose children already get free school meals – would be put off returning to work, because losing their entitlement to free meals would cost them more than £300, they added.
The medical colleges, together with the Faculty of Public Health, Diabetes UK and the National Heart Forum, as well as three major teaching unions, the Child Poverty Action Group and the Children's Food Campaign, wrote: "Ensuring that all primary school children living in poverty receive a healthy school meal would make a considerable contribution to reducing both education and health inequalities.
In a country where almost one-third of children are overweight school meals play an important role in starting children off on the right food by offering healthy options.
Eating healthy at school, and in particular trying new types of fruit and vegetables, also influences what families eat at home, they added. Sadly, only 1% of packed lunches meet the nutritional standards for school meals. As a result, children who are not eligible for free meals, and whose parents are unable to afford to pay for a school meal each day, are unable to eat as healthily as their peers.
The plan to extend eligibility for free school meals to all primary school children who are living below the poverty line was announced last December. They are currently only available for families receiving unemployment benefit. The poverty line for a couple with two children is calculated at £374 a week, or £19,500 a year.
Gove has said he had to ditch the expansion to ensure the government did not make "unaffordable promises for the future", claiming his predecessor, Ed Balls, had underestimated the costs.
Other signatories to the letter included the Centre for Food Policy, the GMB and Unison. Those on board from the medical colleges were Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, Dr Peter Carter, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, and Dr David Vickers, registrar of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
A Department for Education spokesman said: "All pupils who are currently eligible for free school meals will continue to receive them. However, the money originally allocated for the extension of the scheme fell far short of the true cost – to the tune of £295m over three years and this government is not prepared to risk cuts to frontline budgets to meet these costs.
"The government's priority for this year has to be to invest the savings we have made on FSM within our budget, after our contribution to deficit reduction, in measures that most directly affect attainment for the poorest pupils."
Source and thanks to www.gaurdian.co.uk.
