A quarter of families with pre-school children in food poverty
The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has released a shocking report revealing that 24% of families with young children experience food poverty.
For single parent families, this figure rises to around a half. NDNA has called for the Government to fund all meals for pre-school children in nursery because poor and limited diets will impact their development and life chances.
Among their recommendations, the EPI report authors call for free school meals which children in school-based early years settings receive to be extended to all children across all types of settings. This is something which NDNA has been campaigning for so children from disadvantaged backgrounds in PVI nurseries do not miss out.
Although some progress has been made for school-aged children, younger children have been overlooked, according to the EPI report.
Tim McLachlan, NDNA’s Chief Executive said: “Healthy and nutritious meals are vital for children’s physical and cognitive development especially in their early years, so we welcome EPI’s report and recommendations on universal free meals.
“NDNA has been calling for the Government to go further. Some parents on Universal Credit are actively being told that nursery charges for their children’s meals will not be covered by their childcare payments, further embedding their disadvantage.
“We want to see the current free school meals eligibility extended to include all children regardless of their type of early education provider, which is grossly unfair anyway. The majority of places are provided by PVI nurseries which aren’t funded to deliver these free meals.
“Both these points lead to a lose-lose situation for these children and add to the pressure and sense of unfairness for parents and providers.
“It’s time the Government makes a sensible choice in addressing the inequality that the DWP’s policy continues to perpetuate and gives all children the right to free meals at nursery.”
The report reads:
“From September 2026 eligibility for free school meals will be extended to all children whose parents/carers are in receipt of Universal Credit (UC), and this will also be the case for free meals in nursery. Recent research estimates that once free meal eligibility criteria is changed to include all families receiving Universal Credit (UC), 290,000 children aged one to three whose parents receive UC will still miss out on free meals, due to these and other issues with the policy.”
A government spokesperson told the press: “No child can have the best start in life on an empty stomach. That’s why we are determined to reduce child poverty after years of rising hardship.
“We’ve removed the two-child limit, which will lift 450,000 children out of poverty, raised the national living wage, and put over £1billion into extending free school meals to every family on Universal Credit.
“For the youngest children we want to go further. We are consulting now on getting more funding directly to the nurseries and childminders supporting families on the lowest incomes, including help with the cost of food, and we want to hear from parents and providers before the consultation closes on 14 September.”
Read the full report here.
NDNA will be responding to the funding consultation on behalf of our members.
You can respond to the consultation here.
- England
- early years
- nutrition
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