More than three-quarters of school staff are increasingly being pulled away from their usual jobs to deal with the effects of child poverty, according to findings published today.
Some 79 per cent of staff said they were being diverted from their roles to carry out “poverty mitigation tasks” such as helping students with dinner money debt, hardship grants, and sourcing food bank vouchers and clothing.
Among headteachers, the proportion rose to 92 per cent, according to the report by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).
And 89 per cent of staff who took part in the research, co-ordinated by the Education Anti-Poverty Coalition, said they believed child poverty in their school has increased in the past two academic years.
One headteacher said child poverty is the worst she has seen it during her more than two decades in the role.
Mairead Waugh, headteacher at St Philip Howard Catholic Primary School in Hertfordshire, said poverty levels had “increased significantly” at her school, which runs a food bank and does second-hand uniform sales.
She told the PA news agency: “It’s widespread. I’ve been a head for 25 years, I’ve never seen it as bad as it is at the moment and the numbers are just increasing week-on-week currently.”
CPAG said that the report, which surveyed 1,023 people working in or with schools in England, showed that school staff “want to focus on children’s development but get side-tracked by dinner money debt”, including having to check payments, contact parents and signpost to advice services.
The findings come after a National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) report this month said nearly nine in 10 schools in England are providing uniforms and clothing to some pupils as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite.
Responding to today’s findings, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “Urgent government investment is needed - not only in direct financial support to alleviate pressures on families, for example, by extending free school meals, but also to ensure services like social care, which have suffered huge funding cuts, are better equipped to offer help when people are struggling.”
More families struggling to cope amid cost-of-living crisis
Almost nine in 10 (88 per cent) of all school staff surveyed said more families in their school who previously appeared to be managing financially are now struggling to cope amid the cost-of-living crisis, with 68 per cent saying more pupils do not have money for enough food at lunchtime.
When asked which policies would have the biggest effect on reducing child poverty in their school, 80 per cent of school staff said providing universal free school meals to all school children, almost two-thirds (63 per cent) said increasing the amount of financial support low-income and middle-income families with children receive, and 68 per cent said more government help for families with school costs such as uniform and school trips.
Free school meals were rolled out to all primary-aged pupils in state-funded schools in London for the 2023-24 academic year, in a move announced by Labour mayor Sadiq Khan.
But elsewhere in England, only some children qualify for free school meals, including those whose parents are on Universal Credit with a household income of less than £7,400 a year.
A government spokesperson said it had extended eligibility for free school meals “several times to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century”, including introducing new eligibility criteria for families receiving Universal Credit.
The spokesperson also highlighted core schools’ funding which it said is “helping schools to manage costs and best support pupils”, and noted it had provided “record financial support worth an average £3,300 per household” amid the higher cost of living.
