Council defends axing kids' holiday meal vouchers

A plan to withdraw summer holiday meal vouchers for children who receive free school meals during term time has been defended by Sandwell Council.

The Reform-run council said financial help of up to £50 would be available three times a year to "anyone who was struggling" and not just recipients of the meals.

Council's no longer have to provide holiday meal vouchers to all children on free school meals after the government replaced the household support fund with the crisis resilience fund, but some authorities have continued to do so.

Labour opposition leader Paul Moore described the plan, likely to be finalised next week, as "terrible" and said Sandwell's poorest families would be worst hit.

The council said details of how to apply for a crisis payment would be made available on its website after next week's meeting, its first of the municipal year.

A report setting out the eligibility criteria said payments would be available to low income households who have experienced an emergency, financial shock, have no reasonable alternative of meeting an essential need, or required support to prevent a crisis from escalation.

Applications "will be assessed on individual circumstances, available evidence, identified need and the availability of funding" and are "discretionary" the report says.

Council leader Ray Nock said: "I want to be really clear to those families in hardship in Sandwell and those who are struggling to afford food due to the challenging economic conditions and increase in food and energy prices recently, we are here to help and you should get in touch."

Nock said the scheme the council was proposing to replace the automatic entitlement to food vouchers for children run receipt of free school meals would be "a hand up, rather than a hand out".

Marie Gibbons told the BBC her daughter had been eligible for the vouchers in previous years because of her complex needs.

"It does help a lot of people," she said. "Especially if they don't have enough money to get the meals they would have had free at school."

There should be support for parents to make sure children get a meal every day.

She said the vouchers had allowed her daughter to attend sessions at a leisure centre where there were activities alongside sandwiches, which had additionally provided exercise and a good way to reduce screen time.

But Moore said: "It's less than two weeks before the summer holidays start and many families will have budgeted for this support."

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