Less food for families on summer-holiday support

Rising nutrient costs person driven down the worth of summer-holiday enactment for pupils connected escaped schoolhouse meals.

During the holidays, galore councils successful England connection vouchers oregon currency payments to assistance those eligible.

But BBC News probe shows 67 of 92 councils person chopped oregon kept their enactment the aforesaid arsenic past year, starring to a driblet successful worth erstwhile nutrient inflation, presently 17.3%, is taken into account.

Support has ended successful Northern Ireland and varies crossed Wales and Scotland.

Zoe, from Harlow, Essex, has 3 children, eight, 10 and 18, each entitled to escaped schoolhouse meals during word clip and vouchers worthy £75 each for the summertime holidays.

They received £75 vouchers past twelvemonth excessively - but the wealth buys little now.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI), the main "headline" measurement of inflation, is presently 7.9%.

But ostentation for nutrient and non-alcoholic drinks is 17.3%.

A nutrient store that would person been £75 past twelvemonth present costs Zoe £88.

A full-time carer for her husband, she is grateful for the vouchers but says they volition screen her nutrient store for lone the archetypal 3 weeks of the seven-week holiday.

"The vouchers lone agelong truthful far, truthful I'm up each nighttime with worry," she says.

"Last year, things had started to spell up - but it wasn't arsenic atrocious arsenic now."

The vouchers tin beryllium spent lone astatine supermarkets, truthful this is wherever Zoe, whose surname BBC News has chosen to withhold, does astir of her nutrient buying - switching betwixt shops to marque the astir of reductions and deals.

She tin conscionable astir spend to provender her children the aforesaid nutrient arsenic past twelvemonth - but she and her hubby present often devour crockery made from vegetables she picks up astatine the section nutrient bank.

"Please don't ever beryllium embarrassed to spell to a nutrient bank," Zoe says.

"We're each successful the aforesaid vessel - I ne'er thought I'd go... [but] without them, we'd beryllium successful a batch worse situation."

The backing for this summer's nutrient vouchers for families successful England comes from the £842m Household Support Fund (HSF).

Of the 153 section authorities successful England, 92 shared information connected the payments and vouchers:

Most councils successful England besides connection a Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, with events providing childcare, steadfast meals and activities for children from low-income families.

The HAF is abstracted to the HSF and specifically aims to enactment children eligible for escaped schoolhouse meals.

About 600,000 children attended past summer, the Department for Education (DfE) says, much than 475,000 of them eligible for escaped schoolhouse meals. But crossed England, much than 2 cardinal are eligible.

Tanisha Bramwell had to prioritise children connected escaped schoolhouse meals erstwhile allocating places connected her HAF programme, successful West Yorkshire, but worries astir low-income families not eligible.

"Most of the radical who request our enactment are moving families who don't get vouchers oregon assistance successful the holidays," she says.

"I've lone got backing for 20 places - and we've got 70 children connected the list.

"My fearfulness is that galore children are going to get missed and volition beryllium going bare this summer."

Child Poverty Action Group main enforcement Alison Garnham says: "We've reached a debased constituent if it's deed and miss whether children get the nutrient they request successful summer, depending connected wherever they live."

"The underlying occupation is that truthful galore families don't person capable wealth to unrecorded connected twelvemonth circular and that's connected cardinal authorities - not section authorities - to tackle."

The DfE says it is taking enactment successful England "to enactment families and boost children's beingness chances".

It had accrued per-pupil backing for escaped schoolhouse meals for state-school pupils successful Reception and Years 1 and 2, it said, and would beryllium raising it a further 5% implicit the adjacent year.

There are nary vacation enactment schemes successful Northern Ireland either. More than 96,000 children who would beryllium eligible for enactment successful the different UK nations are receiving none.

The Welsh authorities has besides ended backing for nutrient during the holidays for children connected escaped schoolhouse meals.

Instead, it is spending £4.85m connected a vacation strategy wherever children tin be an enactment and person a meal. And immoderate section councils are handing retired payments from their ain budgets.

Support besides varies from assembly to assembly successful Scotland. Inverclyde offers a full of £102 per kid for the holiday, Edinburgh £85.

The Scottish authorities said it had £21.75m successful backing for children eligible for escaped schoolhouse meals to beryllium supported implicit the holidays.

Additional reporting by Alice Evans and Rahib Khan.