Cuts proposed to value of holiday meal vouchers in Cambridgeshire

The government is proposing a cut of £45 in the value of vouchers given to parents

The value of free school meal holiday vouchers given to parents in Cambridgeshire is set to reduce.

Funding for the vouchers - for children eligible for free school meals - had come from the government but the county council said this would end in March.

The authority proposes to spend £3m on the vouchers over the coming year, but parents will receive £135, not £180.

Approval for continuation of the scheme is expected to be given at a council meeting next month.

As reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, at a meeting of the county council's strategy, resources and performance committee, opposition Conservative councillor Steve Count said the leadership needed to make parents aware of the proposed change.

He said it would "help them plan their year".

Liberal Democrat council leader Lucy Nethsingha denied the proposed move was a cut.

She said the council's contribution to funding the vouchers was increasing "significantly" and that it was the government's contribution that was "disappearing".

Bryony Goodliffe, Labour chair of the authority's children and young people committee, said: "Spending £3m is definitely not a cut in my book.

"I know an awful lot of very local councils who have said they cannot continue to fund free school meals, quite understandably so with their own budgetary issues. I am really pleased that as a council and as a joint administration we have seen this as a huge priority.

"So I am really delighted that we are not following the government lead to cut the free school vouchers, but are ploughing ahead and making sure that we can fund as much as possible for the children of Cambridgeshire."

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