Derbyshire headteacher with ‘major concerns’ over ‘enormous rise’ in school meal prices says parents will ‘simply not purchase meals anymore’

Sue Parkes, headteacher at Staveley Junior School met with Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins and Staveley Councillor Anne-Frances in a bid to scrap the ‘enormous rise’ in prices of school meals proposed by Derbyshire County Council.

Derbyshire County Council announced that primary paid meal charge to parents and carers is set to increase by 95p to £3.25 from the new school year. Prices are set by a comparable amount in secondary schools, but will vary as there is more meal choice.

Following the announcement, Sue Parkes, said: “I have major concerns around the enormous rise in the price of Derbyshire school meals which has been announced for September. A rise of 95p a day is going to have a very high impact in my school despite the fact that 66% of my families are currently in receipt of free school meals.

“Around 30 meals a day are served within school outside of FSM and most of these are to families whose income sits just above the FSM threshold – many of these have several children in school. The FSM threshold is very low at £7400 and so families can be above this and still face a considerable financial struggle.

“A family with three children will now have to find an extra £60 a month to continue using the school meals service and I suspect that the reality is that in the current economic climate they will simply not purchase meals anymore.

“Ultimately we are talking about a massive impact on the core purpose of school meals – to ensure that all children irrelevant of family income can have access to at least one nutritionally balanced meal each school day.”