Northumberland County Council rethinking free school meals plans for Christmas holidays

The local authority has not introduced a universal scheme to provide food during the current half-term holiday, but the Conservative administration says it ‘acted quickly to provide additional support to those most in need’ by allowing councillors to use grants of up to £2,000 to work with their communities and provide locally-targeted support.

This followed the Government’s refusal to back a Labour motion to provide children eligible for free school meals with £15-a-week vouchers during the holidays up to Easter 2021 – as happened over the summer – which has sparked a major political backlash.

However, the response in Northumberland was criticised by opposition councillors due to the lack of a consistent countywide offer, as well as the timing and nature of the announcement. It is understood that officers advised lead councillors that a countywide initiative could not be set up in time for half-term following the Commons vote late on Wednesday, October 21.

The latest member to add his criticism is Cllr Bill Crosby, one of the Bedlington independents, who said the authority’s response was as ‘equally poor’ as the Government’s, adding that ‘since (the grants scheme) was only announced on Sunday, it didn’t really give anyone the chance to think about how to roll out something really fit for purpose’.

As an example of how this funding has been used, Cllr Jeff Watson, the Conservative ward member for Amble West with Warkworth, has given £500 to the Amble Food Bank.

But now, council leader Glen Sanderson has confirmed that different options may well be in place come the Christmas holidays.

“We have acted swiftly this week and, as leader, I have asked our officers to work up contingency plans for provision of support to young people for school holidays between now and next Easter,” he said.

“We are looking at a number of options, because we fully recognise our collective responsibilities in helping those who need support and we will continue to do this.

“Covid has caused serious problems for many families across the county and we are supporting them through our Northumberland Communities Together initiatives and by targeted local support over recent days.

“We will be using the extra funding that the Government has given to help those who need it the most.”

The Labour opposition has set up a petition calling for the council to provide free school meal support over the holidays until Easter, but it is also seeking the creation of a cross-party working group to look at child hunger, holiday hunger and free school meals, with figures showing those eligible has increased by 18% in six months, rising from 7,473 in March to 8,818 in October.

Group leader Susan Dungworth said: “In a rich country like ours, no child should be going hungry. Something is not working for these children and families living here in Northumberland and in many parts of the country.

“We need a cross-party working group to look into this issue in detail, listen to children, families, teachers and health and social-care professionals, and come up with some solutions.

“We have always said that free school meals vouchers in the school holidays are not a solution, but it’s badly needed here and now to prevent children going hungry.

“I urge council leaders to invite us to work with them to look at what can be done. There needs to be a longer-term solution which works for children living in our county, because this issue is not going away.”

As previously reported, Cllr Wayne Daley, who was the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for children’s services until his resignation from those roles in August, is also calling for a longer-term solution through school kitchens being used to support communities outside term-time.

The Conservative, who himself benefited from free school meals as a youngster, said that Northumberland should be a national exemplar by running pilots in areas such as Ashington and Blyth.

A number of businesses in Northumberland have stepped up with offers to help feed children this week, while two Conservative-controlled councils – Cramlington and Morpeth – opted to set up their own schemes.

Cramlington’s Mayor, Loraine De Simone, said “On the first day of the scheme being active, we received over 100 applications.

“To me that is an indication that the council made the correct decision by earmarking funds to help local families who are in need of additional support during the school holidays.”

“I’m incredibly proud of our town council coming together to address this situation. We don’t want any child in our town being a victim of holiday hunger.”

New Tory MP targeted by campaign

Blyth Valley Constituency Labour Party (CLP) has launched a Donate Your Plate campaign to encourage people to help support local food bank groups and send a message to Ian Levy – the area’s first Tory MP.

Blyth Valley CLP media officer, Tanya Shaw, one of the campaign organisers, said: “We are calling on Ian to step up to the plate and pressure the Government to reverse this decision in time for the Christmas holidays.

“Our bairns should not go hungry during school holidays and we demand that Ian supports any future parliamentary vote that will ensure children from families who are struggling, especially during the current Covid-19 crisis, will receive a daily meal during the school holidays.”

Cllr Dungworth added: “Considering the Conservatives won the election on the promise of levelling up, they have a very strange way of going about it. They are punishing children and families who, through no fault of their own, have been affected by Covid-19. It’s just not good enough.

“We expect our MPs like Ian Levy to speak up for us and not put his party before his constituents.”

In a recent statement, Mr Levy said: “The issue of free school meal provision during holidays has dominated the last week in politics and is an issue that people have very strong views on.

“It is clear that further debate is needed and there is plenty of time ahead of Christmas to do that. There are various options and what needs to be properly understood is how people are best supported, as there is not a single solution that all agree on.”

He added: “Debate does though have to take place in a reasonable manner whether it is in the House of Commons or on social media.

“In recent days, I have received violent threats that have included a suggestion of an attack on my home. While politics certainly does require a thick skin, this type of behaviour is completely unacceptable.

“The police have been informed and I have been advised to limit my public engagements while investigations take place, which is something I will reluctantly have to do.”

He claimed that it ‘has undoubtedly been politically motivated and orchestrated with the majority of offensive comments and threats from people living outside of Blyth Valley’ and that ‘local Labour councillors and activists have also not added to the debate, but have simply antagonised the situation’.

The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers and consequently the advertising that we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news by buying a copy of our newspaper. If you can, please do pick up a copy when you are at the shops. Thank you for your support.