East Riding free school meal families will get £15 vouchers this October half term as financial hardship facing them is “far from over”, the council’s children’s portfolio holder has said.
East Riding Council’s Children and Young People portfolio holder Cllr Victoria Aitken said the authority would use its share of a new government support fund to finance the vouchers.
But the portfolio added the vouchers would be sent out after the amount of eligible children locally has risen from 7,757 to 8,275 since last year.
The update came in response to Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee chair Cllr Ben Weeks asking the portfolio holder to clarify the support families could expect this half term.
The council first launched the vouchers last October following a high profile campaign from England footballer Marcus Rashford.
Cllr Aitken said the East Riding received £1.175m from the government to fund free school meal payments in the last year.
The government has announced councils will be able to claim from a £500m Household Support Fund from this month, aimed at residents still struggling in the wake of the pandemic.
Cllr Aitken said the East Riding hoped to use their share of the funding to help fund free school meal vouchers during the October half term.
The portfolio holder said:
“The increase in the number of eligible children is coupled with the ongoing financial impact on families which is far from over.
“We’re working with our officers to ensure the council can continue to provide financial support.
“We’re committed to helping pupils going forward The government’s Household Support Fund
“We first made the decision to support families with children eligible for free school meals last October.
“We began by making direct payments to those families, a support grant was made available to them for the Christmas and Easter holidays.
“The council continued its support through the May half term, the grants were £15 per eligible child and we know they’ve been of significant help to families.
“The payments have been made by bank transfer and supermarket vouchers, distributed with help from schools.
“Eligible families whose children attended school outside the East Riding were asked to contact our education service directly.”
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