Highest uptake of school meals in NI

TWO-THIRDS of school pupils in the Western Education and Library Board (WELB) take school meals - the largest proportion anywhere in Northern Ireland and much higher than in England and Scotland.

A new report from the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) shows 63.9 per cent of pupils here were taking school meals in October 2009 which was significantly higher than in the Southern (58.2 per cent) and Belfast (50.4 per cent) Education and Library Boards which recorded the next highest uptakes.

Just over half of all pupils in Northern Ireland’s 1,200 schools eat school lunches on a regular basis (52.5 per cent in 2009/around 165,000 pupils). Overall uptake in Northern Ireland remains higher than that in both England and Scotland.

The “Promoting Good Nutrition through Healthy School Meals” report also shows that uptake in WELB has been higher than anywhere else since 2003 and that schools meals expenditure in this area between 2005 and 2010 was £34,796,000.

In 2008/09 WELB’s nutritional standards funding allocations was £875,000 - much higher than anywhere else and almost double Belfast’s allocation of £451,000.

While the Department of Education (DE) provided £36 million for the provision of free school meals in 2009-10, a key finding of the report was that around 22 per cent of the 58,000 pupils registered as entitled to free school meals did not take up this entitlement. This meant that some 12,700 pupils were missing out on a free school meal to which they were entitled.

Over the past ten years the average price of a school meal has increased by 78 per cent against an increase in food prices of just under 30 per cent. There are wide variations between school kitchens in the cost of producing a school meal. For example, in one Board the unit cost of producing a school meal ranged from £1.68 to £6.63

The price of a school meal here is relatively expensive compared with England and Scotland. For example the report notes that a school meal in a post-primary school was £1.68 in Scotland, £1.88 in England and £2.30 in Northern Ireland

The NIAO review applauds an initiative launched in WELB three years ago to target low income families and encourage them to claim free school meals saying the move should be used as an exemplar by other boards.

The NIAO report states: “In May 2008, the Western Board, in partnership with Advice NI, launched an initiative aimed at targeting low income families who are unaware of their entitlement or indeed the value of claiming their entitlement to free school meals.

“It is crucially important that the other Boards liaise with the Western Board and Advice NI to gauge how successful the initiative is in addressing low levels of free school meals uptake and that they use it as an exemplar in developing a similar approach among their own schools.”

The WELB scheme was prompted by concerns about a potential link between child poverty and a failure to apply for free school meals entitlement.

Booklets have been distributed to draw attention to the availability of free school meals whilst principal conference days have also been used as promotional vehicles.

A single application form for both free school meals and the clothing allowance has also been developed whilst promotional literature has been issued to schools prior to the beginning of the new academic year. Proactive use of the media to promote awareness of entitlement has also been employed in WELB.

“Other options for promotion include having open forums where families may freely discuss issues around free school meals without fear of being stigmatised and developing easy access, online application processes,” the report states.

Mr Kieran Donnelly, Comptroller and Auditor General, said: “A balanced diet is essential for children and young people if they are going to develop and grow into healthy adults.

“School provides an ideal opportunity to convey positive messages about healthy eating. In this regard, therefore, I commend the hard work of school employing authorities and school catering staff in bringing about significant improvements in the quality and nutritional value of school meals.

“However, whilst considerable steps have been taken, further improvements must be made to ensure that all schools comply with the compulsory nutritional standards and that children are encouraged to make healthy eating choices.”