School food funding ‘not sufficient’ says school praised by DfE

The head of a school held up by the government as an exemplar of its planned school food revolution says current funding levels are “not sufficient” as it has to spend thousands of pounds offsetting costs.

The Department for Education cited The Grove School in Devon when it announced plans to overhaul school food standards earlier this month.

Hilary Priest, The Grove’s headteacher, was quoted as saying she was “incredibly proud” of her school’s meals, following a partnership with the charity Chefs in Schools.

Meals were “freshly prepared on site, with a daily choice of main or alternative, a varied salad bar, fresh fruit and water always available”.

But Priest told Schools Week current funding levels for free school meals were “not sufficient”.

Schools are allocated £495 for every pupil who is eligible for free school meals, which equates to £2.61 a day.

For parents who pay for meals, The Grove School charges £2.75, but Priest said this too “isn’t enough”.

The school is one of many that has chosen to absorb some of the cost so as not to further “burden” parents.

Priest said it “had to find £16,652 extra” to help cover the shortfall last financial year.

About 230 meals a day are served with about 50 pupils eligible for free school meals.

“We have to balance our menu with cheaper days and we do a lot of fundraising to support our kitchen and cooking experiences.”

Food costs average £1 per meal, with the rest going towards staffing costs fuelled by pay rises and national insurance increases.

‘Quality food within budgets’

A 2024 report by School Food Matters (SFM) found the average price charged to families and schools was then about £2.80 in primaries and £2.60 in secondaries, although it varied widely.

Accounting for staffing, food prices and overheads, SFM said in that report that £3.16 was needed. The School Food People put the figure at £3.45 per meal.

The proposed new standards have exacerbated concerns for caterers and schools already struggling with tight budgets, as experts warn more funding is needed to deliver the reforms that are aimed at improving nutrition.

Minister Olivia Bailey dismissed these concerns last week, telling Sky News she was “really confident that schools will be able to deliver really great quality, healthy food with the meal rate that they have”.

She told BBC Breakfast many schools were already “providing this kind of great quality food… really effectively and efficiently with their budgets”.

Schools Week asked the DfE for examples of these schools, but it did not name any directly.

It referred Schools Week to a report by The Food Foundation, published alongside the school food standards announcement, which included examples of positive changes schools have seen after making catering more healthy.

‘Disingenuous’

Education campaigner Andy Jolley said: “It’s disingenuous of ministers to maintain that insufficient school meal funding isn’t a major concern.”

“The evidence is clear. Existing school meals are underfunded. Healthier meals with more expensive ingredients and increased labour will need significant new investment if they are going to have a positive impact.”

Brad Pearce, chair of The School Food People, said schools “are now clearly telling government that not only are they charging more than the funded rate, but they are also subsidising the statutory school meals service by thousands of pounds per year from teaching and learning budgets”.

He said caterers were already leaving the schools sector because funding did not match costs.

Seven school catering companies have announced closures in the past seven months, several citing financial pressures.

About a quarter of pupils nationally are eligible for free school meals. The £495 allocated for each child is not ring-fenced, giving schools autonomy over how they allocate the funding.

The commonly used £2.61 per-meal figure is calculated by dividing this annual sum by the 190 days children are in school, but the DfE said eligible children did not necessarily claim free school meals every day.

Any shortfall between funding and catering costs for pupils eligible for free school meals is made up by schools.

For other pupils, it is up to schools to decide whether to increase the amount parents pay or to absorb extra costs themselves.

Naomi Duncan, chief executive at Chefs in Schools, would like to see government “rebalance funding so that smaller schools receive proportionally more to help balance baked in running costs like staffing”.