First 750 breakfast clubs to rollout from Tuesday, delivering on government’s manifesto commitment and promise to put more money in working people’s pockets
Tens of thousands of working parents will, from Tuesday, be supported with more flexibility and choice from the rollout of free breakfast clubs across England, as the government delivers on its promise of 30 minutes of free childcare every day.
As children return from the Easter holidays, the first 750 schools across the country are set to begin offering free breakfast clubs. This will help parents get up to 95 hours back a year – giving them more support at a crucial time in the morning as they balance busy lives of work and childcare.
New government data shows that over half of parents would use this time to juggle parenting with working, training or studying.
The free breakfast clubs will save parents up to £450 a year and come alongside a raft of measures from government to provide parents with greater choice and help with the cost of living, such as a cap on school uniform costs and expanding free childcare for under-fives to 30 hours per week.
It comes as major employers like British Airways, Accenture and Rigby Group back the clubs to support parents to work more flexibly.
The rollout delivers on the government’s manifesto promise to ensure state schools offer free breakfast clubs to all pupils, while supporting its Plan for Change milestone to ensure tens of thousands more children start school ready to learn.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said:
Across the country, school leaders have seen breakfast clubs drive improvements in attendance, attainment and behaviour.
This government is going further and faster, using the 750 free breakfast clubs as a key tool to tackle barriers to learning in schools, with 500,000 primary school pupils missing at least one day of school every fortnight last year, 1 in every 3 pupils not ready to start school at age 5 and 1 in every 50 pupils suspended at least once.
Sean Doyle, Chairman and Chief Executive, British Airways said:
Shaheen Sayed, Head of Accenture in the UK, Ireland and Africa, said:
Steve Rigby Co-CEO, Rigby Group said:
St Benedict’s Primary School, which currently offers breakfast club provision, is going to be one of the early adopter schools to expand the benefits of the club.
Emma Nott, Head Teacher at St Benedict’s Primary School said:
Too many children’s life chances have been scarred by poverty, with a third of children leaving primary school without fundamental reading, writing and maths skills, this increases to over half for disadvantaged pupils.
This government has set out a clear commitment to break down barriers to opportunity for every child, with breakfast clubs proven to boost children’s reading, writing and maths by an average of two months. Craig Jones, Director of the Junior Adventures Group and the PVI Network:
Free breakfast clubs in the early adopter schools will shape the future of the national breakfast club policy, contributing directly to its implementation. Further details on the national roll out of the breakfast clubs programme will follow in due course.