| The Scottish Executive report says the city has by far the worst take-up rate, among eligible pupils at both primary and secondary level, of any local authority in the country.
Only 73% of the primary-age children who are entitled to free meals are registered for them, against a national average of 94%.
That means 724 pupils are either having to pay for food when they don’t have to, or may even be skipping a meal altogether.
The figure slumps even further for children in secondaries, with barely 58% of those eligible actually registered against a national average of 93%. That affects another 638 pupils.
Among Dundee’s neighbouring councils, a far bigger proportion of the pupils able to claim free meals are registered.
In Perth and Kinross, the figures are 98% at primary level and 100% at secondary, with Fife on 97% for both. Angus does not so well, with 87% of eligible primary pupils registered and 88% of secondary pupils.
Free school meals are given to children whose parents are on Income Support or certain other benefits, but are claimed by filling in an application form available from schools or council education departments.
Some 26.1% of Dundee’s primary pupils are eligible for free meals, the second-highest rate after Glasgow, as are 18.8% of secondary pupils, the fourth-highest rate in the country.
Both figures have been dropping in recent years, suggesting the wider economic picture is improving.
However, there is no obvious reason why so many of those eligible pupils do not register for free food.
It may be that parents are either not aware that their child is entitled to free meals, do not know how to make a claim, or even do not want to, feeling there is a stigma attached.
A city council spokesman said, “As part of its wider Health Promoting Schools initiative, Dundee City Council actively encourages children to take healthy options in food and lifestyles.
“In dining halls there are campaigns like the primary ‘Diner’s Code’ and in secondary schools the menu has been altered to encourage healthy eating. There has also been a drive to improve dining facilities in secondaries through the Cafe Discovery concept of ‘diner’ style meal halls.
“The city council is aware there is a percentage of pupils who are eligible for free school meals, but choose not to register.
“The city council is also awaiting the outcome of consultation from the Scottish Executive over the Schools Nutrition and Health Promotion Scotland Bill, which includes a look at ways to improve the uptake of free school meals.”
Last year Dundee University economists Carlo Morelli and Paul Seaman published research that suggested many of the poorest children in Scotland were not getting free meals.
They suggested the best way to help was to make school meals free for every pupil, regardless of their family’s income, but that has failed to win backing from the Executive.
Education minister Peter Peacock said today he intends to make it a legal obligation for councils to promote the uptake of free school meals and to have a system to ensure the children involved can’t be identified by their peers.
Dundee already has an anonymous system at all secondaries and almost all primaries.
Schools also provide free chilled drinking water to all pupils and primaries provide free fruit to the youngest pupils in P1 and P2.
Some 12 city primaries (30% of the total) and five secondaries (50%) also run breakfast clubs.
In 2004/05, the most recent year for which figures are available, the city council spent £2.4 million on providing 1.26 million meals, of which 514,000 were free.
Nationally, local authorities spent £101 million on almost 58 million meals, 17 million of which were free.
A census was taken in early 2006 in all school dining halls to get a snapshot of the take-up of meals. This found just under half of the pupils opted for a school meal, with the rest either going home, eating elsewhere or not having a meal.
However, Dundee saw a 10.2% rise in the uptake of meals in primaries compared with the 2005 survey, while Perth and Kinross was up 6.1% in its primaries.
The Executive’s Hungry for Success programme has seen menus changed to drastically cut the amount of salt, fat and sugar in meals at primaries and the process was now under way at secondaries.
Mr Peacock said, “Our primary schools — the first to make the changes — are seeing the benefit of that effort, with take-up rising overall and in some councils by a significant amount.
“It’s vital that secondary schools learn from their primary colleagues.” |
