Guidance and standards issued to schools on breakfast quality and what good breakfast looks like are “grossly out of date”, education minister Stephen Morgan has said.
The early years minister was speaking after the Department for Education yesterday announced a pilot to test plans for breakfast clubs in primary schools before they are rolled out nationally.
Speaking on a panel at the Labour conference, Mr Morgan said: “It’s very clear to me as a new minister in the department that the current standards we have and the guidance issued to schools is grossly out of date and needs looking at.
“I hope that, through the work that we do, we can look at that and work with the sector to make that happen.”
A representative from the Jamie Oliver Group had asked Mr Morgan whether Labour’s breakfast club plan for primary schools will come with mandatory standards for the quality of food - and what the experience of breakfast should be for children.
Current guidance on school food standards was first published in 2019.
Mr Morgan said it is “really important we learn lessons” from schools in the early adopter scheme and from schools already participating in breakfast programmes.
“There will be particular practical problems and issues that we need to resolve,” he added.
Asked about how else Labour will tackle child poverty and improve outcomes for children, Mr Morgan said the breakfast clubs are a “key contributor” to the DfE’s mission to break barriers to opportunity.
“But also there are other interventions the new government will do, which we hope to deliver to raise standards in schools and make sure that we improve outcomes for all young people,” he said.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves yesterday said that £7 million of funding would go towards the start of breakfast clubs rollout from next April.
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