Holiday school meals: Parents in Wales take fight to court

Children no longer get help with meals during school holidays

The end of free school meal support in school holidays in Wales pushed a family into "sheer poverty", a parent has said.

He and another parent have been given the go-ahead to go to court to try to get the decision reversed.

Mark, not his real name, said the Welsh government's failure to hold a consultation before it cut the support was not fair on those who received it.

The Welsh government, which is fighting the case, said it could not comment.

Ministers have said the policy, which could be worth as much as £20 a week per child, was unaffordable and always time-limited.

A legal charity working on the case said parents told them they either had very little or no notice that the support was ending, after councils were told last June.

The charity - the Public Law Project (PLP) - say no indication was given that the scheme was ending before local authorities were told.

Both parents want the provision reinstated for the next school holiday.

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Granted anonymity as part of the legal action Mark said the additional payment had been a "godsend" for his family.

The severely-ill father, who has a large family and has been out of work for a number of years, said the support had been worth more than £100 a week to his family during holiday weeks.

"It would allow us to go to Tesco and do a really good shop - buy fresh things, vegetables, instead of pre-packed things."

He said he found out that the scheme would end days before the holidays were due to begin, initially through a friend.

The withdrawal of the money made a difficult situation worse. He said he and his partner "rarely eat" and do not consume as much as they used to.

When the vouchers ended his family was put into "sheer poverty", he said.

"The only way out, because we were caught in that trap when it stopped in the summer, was to take out a loan.

"The reality is what we're receiving doesn't quite cover what is going out.

"Keeping up with the payments is physically impossible. We can't afford to buy food and pay bills and pay for the utilities."

The father said it was "not fair how they acted. There was no consultation, no one was aware".

The scheme offered vouchers to families with children receiving free school meals during the holidays.

A second parent in the case, who has children eligible for free school meals, told her legal representatives that over time she began to rely on the vouchers as an "essential part of our income".

She said she had no information or notification that the vouchers would stop, and found their withdraw extremely challenging.

School meal support during the holidays began during the pandemic, and had been repeatedly extended - with the most recent extension to the end of the May half term holiday of last year.

PLP argued the lack of an impact assessment on ethnic minorities and single parent; the lack of evidence that officials considered the impact of the decision on children and the lack of a consultation, was unlawful.

The charity said the announcement on 9 March of the May extension gave no indication that ending provision was on the mind of the government.

The legal charity said an email from a Welsh government official, dated 23 June 2023, said "work is continuing as a matter of urgency to determine the future of the holiday [free School Meals] scheme".

Days later, on 28 June, the Welsh government wrote to councils saying there would be no further extension.

Lawyers said the Welsh government failed to show "due regard to the best interest of children" as required by a 2011 Welsh law that enshrined the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child on the statute books - the first UK country to do that.

They also criticised the lack of assessment of the impact on people with disability, those from an ethnic minority background, or on single parents.

But the Welsh government argues the case is academic because of a fresh decision taken in October 2023 not to reinstate the support.

In an impact assessment drawn up to justify the decision, which BBC Wales has been told is connected to the legal action, said not reinstating the scheme "may increase food insecurity and could have a negative impact upon mental and physical health", but claimed the negative impacts "will be mitigated".

The Welsh government said: "We were always clear that it was a time-limited crisis intervention. The support ran from early in the pandemic until May 2023. In England it ceased in April 2021.

"As this is active litigation, it would not be appropriate to comment further on this matter at this stage".

The spokesman added every child in every primary school would be entitled to free school meals by September 2024.

The application for judicial review is expected to be heard in the High Court sitting in Cardiff in March.

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