Children’s Future Food Inquiry
http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/childrensfoodinquiry/
The Children’s Future Food Inquiry seeks to understand ‘how many children experience food insecurity* and how it impacts their lives’.
* by “food insecurity” we (the inquiry) mean: the inability to acquire or consume an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways, or the uncertainty that one will be able to do so
Hackney Migrant Centre’s School Meals Advocate shares their answers to the inquiry’s questions below. They explain how in their experience NRPF leads to children living in food poverty, particularly in relation to not being able to access free school meals.
The inquiry closes at the end of November 2018 and anyone can submit their experiences and thoughts by following this link: http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/childrensfoodinquiry/
Please tell us whether you think children are able to access a sufficient quantity of food to prevent them going hungry?
No. I have met many families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) whose children are skipping meals, and/or have diets with limited fresh produce and no variety. There are children whose access to food is entirely dependent on the charity of friends or organisations. This charity is often insufficient and unreliable.
Please tell us what you think helps and/or hinders children from accessing a sufficient quantity of food
When families have no recourse to public funds (NRPF), due to the parents' or carers' immigration status, they cannot receive state support regardless of their need. This leaves families, both in and out of work, in extreme poverty. Poverty hinders accessing a sufficient quantity of food.
Schools do not receive funding to provide free school meals to children from families with NRPF from their local authority. In my experience, many schools do not have the money available from their own budgets to cover this cost for children to be able to eat for free. Therefore, many children without adequate access to food at home, are also being refused access to a reliable and filling meal each day at school.
Schools do want to help, but when they are in areas with many migrant families with NRPF, the demand can be too high and their budgets too small to help. Schools not having adequate funding hinders accessing a sufficient quantity of food.
Please use this space to tell us whether children are able to access enough healthy food to meet their nutritional needs
No. The children who I have met that are living in exceptional poverty, have limited diets whose regularity depends on the charity of friends. I have spoken to parents that can only afford to send their child to school with a bread and jam sandwich or a packet of crisps each day. I have spoken to families whose children have to skip meals.
When families cannot access housing because they have no recourse to public funds (NRPF) they are often forced to sofa surf. This means that they are living in temporary and unreliable accommodation with friends, families and sometimes strangers. Often, they sleep in living rooms and on sofas, and have to keep moving to stay out of the host family's way. When a family does not have their own space, the use of the household's kitchen becomes very difficult. Families often cannot store food or cook freely. Their meals will depend on if the friend wants to, or can afford to feed them. If the friend does not or cannot, they are forced to buy fast food from an already tiny budget, further exasperating their destitution. Fresh produce often needs a fridge and has a shorter shelf life. For families with little storage space and without access to a kitchen, fresh produce is impractical and expensive.
I have met many many families in this position, and this is a far too common experience for families with NRPF.
Please tell us what you think helps/hinders children from receiving enough healthy food to meet their nutritional needs
When a family has no recourse to public funds (NRPF) they cannot access state support regardless of how destitute they are. This impoverishes families; it forces them to survive on tiny amounts of money and live in completely unsuitable conditions.
NRPF can therefore lead to food poverty. It means that in many cases there is not enough food, let alone a healthy variety of food.
When a family has NRPF they are not allowed to access free school meals for their children. This means that the children who are the least likely to be able to eat enough at home, also cannot rely on a filling and varied meal at school.
Please tell us if you are aware of children who are accessing food in socially unacceptable ways? Please include any ways of obtaining food that may cause embarrassment/shame for children and their families or that are not culturally appropriate
It is socially unacceptable that people are left with no other option than to ask friends to help them to feed their children.
It is socially unacceptable that children are racking up debt each time they eat a meal at school that they need but their family can't afford.
I have met a parent who had accrued £1000 of debt to her child's school because she was unable to pay for their school meals; that child was then punished by not being allowed to attend his end of secondary school prom. It is socially unacceptable to stigmatise children and parents in this way.
School should be a space where children can learn and play together as equals. If a child is from a family that is struggling financially, they must be able to eat the same meals as their friends at school. It is socially unacceptable for this to place a family further into destitution.
Please tell us about any policies or programmes that you think have helped to alleviate children's food poverty
I do not know of any government policies that have helped to alleviate children's food poverty for families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF).
Hackney council has recently pledged to raise the amount of subsistence that they give to all families receiving Section 17 support who have children in year 3 and above to cover their school meals - all children in years 1 and 2 already receive free school meals in England.
I have written to schools who have agreed to use money from their own budgets to cover the cost of a child's school meals when their family has NRPF. Although this makes a significantly positive impact on the welfare of a child, this is not a long-term solution.
When a school pays for a child's meals it has to take money from its budget that was meant for other things; many schools cannot afford to do this. It also means that the school cannot receive the pupil premium for these children.
The pupil premium is extra funding given to schools to allow them to support children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
'It’s designed to help disadvantaged pupils of all abilities perform better, and close the gap between them and their peers...
In the 2018 to 2019 financial year, schools will receive the following funding for each pupil registered as eligible for free school meals (FSM) at any point in the last 6 years:
£1,320 for pupils in reception to year 6
£935 for pupils in year 7 to year 11'
(https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and-alternative-provision-settings).
Students are identified as needing pupil premium support if they receive free school meals. Children with NRPF cannot apply for free school meals because their parents aren't allowed to receive benefits regardless of how much they may need them. This means that often the poorest children in our society not only cannot access food at home and in school, but are also denied any extra support that the pupil premium offers as well.
Please tell us of any policies or programmes which you think should be introduced to help alleviate children’s food poverty
I think schools should be adequately funded to be able to give free school meals to all children who need them. This must be regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
Any policy introduced must allow children from families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) to access free school meals if they need them. This must also result in schools receiving the pupil premium for those children. This will allow children to access any extra support that they need, including being able to go to breakfast and after school clubs.
Whatever measure is put in place must be carefully considered. It must be sensitive, supportive and understanding. It cannot result in reporting to the Home Office. This is essential to safeguard the welfare of children.
http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/childrensfoodinquiry/
Further submissions submitted by email to [email protected] on 30/11/2018:
To whom it may concern,
I am Hackney Migrant Centre's school meals advocate. My role has been to help families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) request that their children's schools support them with free school meals.
The families that I work with are experiencing extreme poverty but are unable to access benefits. As free school meals funding is calculated according to whether a child's parents are in receipt of benefits, there is a huge number of children who are excluded from this vital provision. My role has been to ask schools to use their own budgets to support these children. Schools are often unable to do this. More information about the impact of denying free school meals to families with NRPF can be found here: https://www.childrenslegalcentre.com/free-school-meals-dfe/
I would like to submit further evidence to your inquiry. I have attached a small selection of advocacy letters and refusals from schools. These documents demonstrate the need for free school meals for families with NRPF, and that when schools refuse to help it is because they do not have the funding to provide this support.
I have already answered the online questionnaire on 28/11/2018. I would like to make clear that when I referred to NRPF, I am referring to families with NRPF as a condition on their visas, and also undocumented migrant families.
I would also like to say that although Hackney council's commitment to fund school meals for children in Section 17 accommodation will make a significant difference to those families, there are still many families with NRPF who are living in poverty and who are not receiving section 17 support. This point is illustrated clearly by the fact that of the 41 children that I have written free school meals advocacy letters for, only 9 had been receiving Section 17 support.
I am very happy to answer any more questions so please do not hesitate to get in touch.