MSPs were given the opportunity today to quiz representatives of local authorities on the Government’s free school meals policy.

Education representatives from Aberdeen, East Ayrshire, Inverclyde and the Scottish Borders were before the Education Committee to explain their councils’ positions on the controversial policy and how they intended to implement it.

The roll out of free school meals to all pupils in Primary 1 to 3 by 2010 was recently announced by the Scottish Government following pilots in five local authorities – Fife, East Ayrshire, Glasgow City, West Dunbartonshire and the Scottish Borders. Though the policy was included in the local government Concordat, which was agreed to by all councils, the announcement prompted claims that a number of local authorities could not afford it.
 
Albert Henderson, Head of Schools at Inverclyde Council, said his council was behind the policy but that the cost of implementing it was a cause of concern. Inverclyde is committed to delivering the roll out by 2010, he told the committee, but it would require some realignment of the education budget as no spare funds are available.

“The problem is, we welcomed as a council the removal of ring fencing and the ability to control efficiencies and then redirect the money through single outcome agreements. Our difficulty, I think, is that we don’t have any money uncommitted just now – all of the education budget is committed. So there will have to be a realignment of education budgets and that will give us pressures in other areas,” Henderson said.

The current economic climate has left the council facing a number of unforeseen financial pressures, Henderson said. As a result it is looking at about £9.5m of a funding gap over the next two years, and approximately £4m of that will hit the education budget.

Councillor Kirsty West, Lead Councillor for Education at Aberdeen City Council, came under pressure from MSPs to clarify her council’s position on free school meals. While the written submission the committee received from Aberdeen stated, “Aberdeen City Council remains unconvinced that the introduction of free lunches to all Primary 1-3 children adds public value or improves the outcomes for children” and that because of budgetary limitations, “the introduction of free food to children may need to be targeted at children and families most in need”, West’s oral evidence suggested the council was fully supportive of the policy.

West told MSPs that she was there to represent the policy position of the council while the submission was written by council officers. Unhappy with this response, Labour MSP and committee convenor Karen Whitefield questioned why the council allowed officials to make the submission before it was signed off by elected members. West explained that time constraints were to blame for the discrepancy.

Aberdeen City Council has a distinctive position on the policy, hoping to extend its free school breakfast policy in addition to free lunches. “We would ideally like to provide both free school breakfasts and free school lunches, utilising funding from the Government, private enterprise and the council itself,” West said.

Conservative MSP Elizabeth Smith questioned whether Aberdeen could afford both these policies and asked West if she thought a more targeted approach would better reach the children most in need.

“I think that if it was targeted in this way it would create inequalities amongst groups of children, and I also think that the added bureaucracy of introducing a two-tiered approach to free school meals would be both costly and undesirable,” West responded.

Given Aberdeen’s recent financial troubles, the councillor provided an assurance to the committee that it was in a position to deliver on the policy come 2010: “The City Council has worked hard to stabilise the budget and I’m convinced that the council will be back on a firm financial footing following this next budget round. Council officials are already factoring in free school meals into the projections for the 2010/11 budget.”

The representatives of East Ayrshire and Borders councils, which both took part in the pilots, were positive about the educational and social impact of free school meals on children. In response to a question from SNP MSP Aileen Campbell, Robin Gourlay, Head of Facilities Management at East Ayrshire Council, said the pilot was very popular with parents and it did not impinge significantly on the curriculum other than allowing pupils an extra five or ten minutes at lunch break.