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12,000 Blackpool children to benefit from free breakfasts

From January, all primary school children in Blackpool could receive a free breakfast.

On Monday, the Council's Executive will discuss proposals to supply free morning meals to around 12,000 pupils in the borough.


The ambitious scheme, would run as a trial from January to March, providing children with free milk, fruit juice, cereal or toast.

It comes only a week after the Council Leader's open letter to the town, as part of the Revitalising Blackpool plan to tackle the social issues of the town.

Council Leader Simon Blackburn said: "This is a bold and ambitious move, but one which is founded entirely in fact, and one which research clearly demonstrates will be of huge benefit to children across the Borough"

"At the moment, some schools run breakfast clubs, which are paid for by parents - usually those in work - as a consequence, the uptake is nowhere near as good as we would like. We now plan to make this service universally available, and hope that all schools and the majority of parents will take advantage of it."

 

"Despite our superb schools, excellent teachers and committed support and catering staff, and the best efforts of the majority of parents - Blackpool still has a big problem with attendance, attainment and behaviour in the classroom.

"Daily we see and hear of children attending school who quite clearly haven't had breakfast, and are not therefore able to learn. Under-nourishment is a real problem here in Blackpool, as one would expect in an area beset by high levels of child poverty.

"A recent survey of schoolchildren suggests that some of our older pupils are more likely to have used alcohol or tobacco in the last week than they are to have eaten breakfast or had 5 portions of fruit and veg a day."

Click here to read more about the plans, discussed on the latest Leader's Blog post.