A minister has defended its flagship free breakfast clubs scheme, after MPs warned staffing and cost concerns could “threaten to undermine the whole initiative”. The Department for Education is currently rolling out its free breakfast clubs more than a thousand of primary schools, with the ambition to reach every primary by 2029. But Schools Week revealed last year how interested schools had snubbed taking part or even dropped out over inadequate funding rates. Ministers increased the minimum per-pupil funding rate from 60p to £1. But MPs raised fresh concerns with early education minister Olivia Bailey at a joint education and work and pensions committee today. Horsham MP John Milne said “pretty much every school in my area has to subsidise” free school meals currently, and that breakfast clubs would “increase the pressure” on these schools. The Liberal Democrats MP added that many schools had told him they would “really struggle to provide them for all kinds of practical, staffing and space reasons”, which could “threaten to undermine the whole initiative”. ‘Take a bit more time’ In response Bailey said: “I’m clear that we are giving both the resource and the kind of practical help that schools need to make those policies a success.” The minister said the DfE had “deliberately taken a test and learn approach to make sure that we are asking schools to do something that is possible to do”, and pointed to the increase of funding announced in November. But she “appreciates with breakfast clubs that for some schools that may be something that they’ll want to take a bit of time to think about how they’re going to do it”. As well as the per-pupil increase, the one-off initial set up fee given to schools would also increase from £500 to £1,000. However, instead of a £1,099 lump sum to help with staffing and admin costs, schools would now get £25 per day. There are currently 750 early adopter schools on the programme, with another 1,500 schools are set to join in September. The cross-government child poverty strategy was launched last year, in a bid to lift half a million children out of poverty by 2030. Policies include including lifting the two-child benefit cap and expanding free school meals and free breakfast clubs.