Winning the argument on Free School Meals  

With the Welsh Government in the process of rolling out Free School Meals to all primary school pupils, Steffan Evans reflects on how the Bevan Foundation won the argument.  

It’s hard to believe that 18 months have now passed since the Welsh Government announced that they would be rolling out free school meals to all primary school pupils in Wales, as part of the Co-operation Agreement between Labour and Plaid Cymru. With the rollout of the policy now well and truly underway, I recently had the opportunity to speak at a conference held by the NEU in London, as organisations across the border step up their campaign for the UK Government to follow the Welsh Government’s lead. Speaking at the event provided an opportunity to reflect on our campaign in Wales, and to consider why we were successful in securing a change that will benefit thousands of children. 

Making school meals an issue  

Universal school meals for primary school pupils was not a campaign that was won overnight. It took years of hard work and determination from a range of campaigners to get us to where we are today. In so far as its possible to identify a starting point for the campaign, then the summer of 2018 is a good place to start.  

Over the summer of 2018 the Welsh Government announced that they would be changing the eligibility criteria for Free School Meals. Any child whose family were in receipt of Free School Meals but earned more than £7,400 a year through work would not be eligible for school meals from the following April, meaning that thousands of children living in in-work poverty would miss out on support. Despite joining forces with others to oppose the change, we made very little headway over the following months and the eligibility changes were introduced to little reaction in April 2019.  

This disappointment however, only motivated us to work harder. Over the following weeks and months we banged the drum on Free School Meals at every opportunity. By the following year, we had succeeded in making school meals a political issue with a number of debates and votes held at the Senedd.  

Winning the argument 

Having successfully raised school meals as a political issue our attention turned to how we would win the argument that the Welsh Government should expand the eligibility criteria for Free School Meals. By monitoring debates in the Senedd we grew to realise that the Welsh Government’s opposition to Free School Meals was not one based on principle, but rather concerns about the potential cost and practical barriers. We therefore set out to address these concerns.  

We addressed the concerns of the Welsh Government in two ways. First, we commissioned external experts Policy in Practice to estimate the cost of expanding the eligibility criteria for Free School Meals. Their work demonstrated that contrary to Welsh Government concerns, expanding school meals provision was in fact affordable, a significant moment in shifting the debate forward.  

Second, we worked with stakeholders across Wales to get a clearer understanding of what the practical barriers might be to expanded school meals provision. Having spoken to caterers, local authority officers, teachers, and others we both identified what some of the barriers to expanded provision might be and developed solutions. For example, we heard from several stakeholders that whilst in the long term there would be a need to expand the size of canteens at many schools, they could, in the short term, cater for increased demand by arranging multiple sittings.  

Taken together both these pieces of work demonstrated that Free School Meals for all primary school pupils was affordable and deliverable. This paved the way for the commitment that appeared in the co-operation agreement.  

The work continues  

Having secured a major commitment from the Welsh Government on school meals we did not rest on our laurels. With the cost-of-living crisis pushing so many households into hardship across Wales we believed that there was an urgency to get the policy implemented as quickly as possible.  

To facilitate implementation, we decided to revisit our work looking at the barriers to expanding free school meals, by engaging with stakeholders from across the nation. Through this work we were able to bottom out which were the greatest challenges that would need to be faced and were able to make practical suggestions to the Welsh Government to ease implementation.  

One of the most important of these suggestions was that the pace of the expansion of Free School Meals should not be driven by the slowest local authorities. We heard from a number of stakeholders that most of their schools were ready to go and would certainly be in a position to move well before the September 2024 target date. We were delighted that the Welsh Government took this suggestion on board with the rollout in many parts of Wales now significantly further advanced than many would have expected only 12 months ago.  

The Bevan Foundation’s extensive work on Free School Meals was only possible because of the generosity of its supporters and subscribers. Their kind donations and subscriptions enabled us to understand the difficulties faced by low income families, develop a solution, raise awareness of the problem and persuade decision-makers to take action.   

We cannot do this alone – will you support us with a donation of just £4.25 a month so that we can continue the fight?