Government says flagship policy is designed to be inclusive. But schools and experts warn that funding is inadequate
Tens of thousands of the country’s most vulnerable children could miss out on free school breakfasts unless Labour makes changes to one of its flagship policies, ministers are being warned.
Schools, academics, and the Disabled Children’s Partnership (DCP) – a coalition of more than 120 organisations representing child healthcare professionals, parents and children’s charities – are pointing to an array of problems they say could mean more than 140,000 disabled children missing out on the breakfast clubs.
They are calling for more funding so that adjustments can be made to food, transport and staffing, meaning the government scheme will work for pupils with special needs in mainstream and special schools.
The Government has described the claims as “completely untrue” and says the policy is designed to be “inclusive from the ground up”.
Funding ‘won’t cover staff costs’
But Professor Rebecca O’Connell, an expert on food in special schools, said: “We don’t think that that funding is going to cover staff costs. It may barely cover the food, but it certainly won’t cover staff costs.”
Their concerns are being backed by a senior Labour MP. Helen Hayes, chair of the Commons Education Committee, said she “absolutely” agrees that tens of thousands of children could miss out unless reasonable adjustments are made.
She said that services must be designed to “take account of the needs of disabled children and make sure that they are able to access the services that they’re entitled to”.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson’s manifesto promise to fund free breakfast clubs across England is due to begin in April with a pilot of 750 “early adopter” primary schools, including 50 special schools and alternate provision settings.
Mike Finlay, headteacher at Springwater School, an early adopter 2-19 special school in Harrogate, welcomed the scheme, saying he was “committed to testing and learning what will work best for pupils with SEND [special educational needs and disabilities], including ways to ensure home-school transport agreements can maximise the number of pupils attending”.
Early adopter offers breakfast to all primary pupils
He said all primary-age children at his school, which cater for pupils up to the age of 19, were being offered access to the breakfast club.
But other schools and sector experts are warning that Government funding is “not enough” to provide breakfasts at special schools or for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) at mainstream schools. This is despite special schools receiving a higher funding rate of £3.23 per pupil per day for the scheme compared to the basic rate at mainstream schools of 78p per free school meal pupil and 60p for others.
Rosie Clark, headteacher at Woodlands School, a special school in Surrey, said it would not be able to provide breakfast clubs under the Labour scheme as the funding falls “significantly” short.
And another special school – one of the early adopters – already has “many reservations” over the pilot in terms of funding levels and children needing to arrive earlier than home school transport agreements, according to an agency working with the school that The i Paper has spoken to.
The school is understood to be going ahead with the scheme due to the value it will provide to children and families. But the agency said the practical problems it was facing also included staffing numbers and the type of food that is offered.
‘Breakfast clubs won’t work for our pupils’
Rosie Clark, headteacher at Woodlands School, Surrey, said her special school, which has 107 children with complex needs, was already getting parental requests for breakfast clubs. The school is not part of the early adopters scheme.
Rosie Clark, headteacher at Woodlands School, Surrey (Photo: Supplied)
She said rolling out the scheme is “not possible with the funding available for our pupils”.
“The children that we have require two-to-one staffing so the funding for that would be quite expensive and it can’t come out of school budgets,” she said.
“We’d love to be able to provide it, but to staff it and fund it is just not something that we’re able to do at this stage.
“One of the other big issues is that most of our children come in on school transport, and the government policy is that school transport is only home-to-school and for the length of the school day.
“It wouldn’t actually help parents out in terms of work because they would have to bring them to school earlier, which would take longer than getting transport.”
Ms Clark added that it would not be feasible “cost-wise” to get some children in earlier for breakfast clubs because they would have to be on a different transport route to those who wanted to come in for the beginning of the school day.
Professor O’Connell, who specialises in food, families and society at the University of Hertfordshire, said the funding for special schools or mainstream schools with SEND children “definitely won’t be enough”.
“Special schools or school children with special educational needs need additional staff and additional resources to support them, particularly children with complex needs during those hours,” said the academic who is researching the uptake and impact of food in special schools in a project funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research.
‘Problems around transport’
She said “problems around transport” were raised in a survey of 34 schools in the East of England carried out from November 2024 to January 2025.
“Children are often coming to school by local authority transport [provided free for pupils with SEND],” she said. “Whether or not they would actually be able to arrive at school in time to benefit from the breakfast before school formally starts is an issue that needs addressing.”
Gillian Doherty, co-founder of the campaign group SEND Action said that special schools had told her they did not think the policy would work for them, citing high staffing costs and home-school transport as “big obstacles”.
She said: “When you’re introducing a policy like this, what you have to think through is how you make it accessible for all children. To the extent that that’s been done, those findings have been ignored because it needs additional resourcing.”
Una Summerson, head of policy and public affairs at Contact, the charity which set up and leads the Disabled Children’s Partnership (DCP) said there was a “real risk” that the children who missed out on free school lunches due to disabilities could also “be at a distinct disadvantage in accessing breakfast clubs”.
“Based on evidence that showed disabled children are missing out on early years entitlements, wraparound childcare and free school meals, Contact and DCP estimates that at least 140,000 disabled children could also miss out on breakfast clubs too,” she said.
But this number could be even higher because the breakfast clubs present the additional problem of children on local authority transport not being able to get to school on time.
Ms Hayes welcomed the inclusion of special schools in the breakfast clubs pilot scheme but said: “It won’t be enough simply to say that those children should be included if there is not specific provision for their additional needs to be met.”
Call for food vouchers
Written evidence to the Public Bill Committee submitted by the Disabled Children’s Partnership and the Special Educational Consortium – representing more than 130 organisations for SEN and disability – said more needed to be done to ensure breakfast clubs were accessible. This included specialist support staff and food vouchers for children unable to assess meals.
The evidence stated that without a clear requirement for schools to make reasonable adjustments and duties on local authorities to co-operate, there was a risk of “placing disabled children at a disadvantage before the school day has even begun”.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “These claims are completely untrue. We have designed the free breakfast club programme to be inclusive from the ground up – with significantly higher per pupil funding rates for special schools, and clear guidance for all schools on making their breakfast club offer inclusive.
“There are around 50 special schools in the early adopter scheme which runs from April, which will develop further learnings for the national rollout, including how schools can implement an inclusive breakfast club that helps all pupils start the day ready to learn.
“Our Plan for Change is clear: we will work tirelessly to break the link between children’s background and their opportunity in life, and through our free breakfast clubs improve children’s attainment, attendance and behaviour in school.”
