
APPG — 30th January 2023
Members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Parental Participation in Education gathered in Westminster on 30th January 2023. The group exists to promote the benefits of parents actively participating in their child’s education, and of building close and successful relationships between homes and schools.
Free School Meals For All Bill
Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, updated the group about the progress of the Bill that she proposed in Parliament to extend the eligibility criteria for Free School Meals (FSMs). This would remove the barrier of families having to apply for them and the stigma for children who are in receipt of them by making FSMs universal for every child in primary school in England. The Bill would aim to help ease the impact of the cost of living crisis on families’ household budgets. It would be similar to provision already in place in Scotland and Wales. The MP suggested that it could be paid for through removing the tax break for independent schools. The Bill currently has the backing of 58 MPs and a broad coalition of education stakeholders but has not made it past its first reading in Parliament, though Zarah Sultana aims to propose it again. Chair Ian Mearns, the MP for Gateshead, said that at a school where he is governor, 49% of pupils qualify for FSMs, but families of the other 51% can be equally financially disadvantaged if they narrowly fail to meet the eligibility criteria.