Opposition parties believe the expansion of free meals to a third York school is a limited step towards their goal of providing one for every primary-age child.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader, Cllr Paula Widdowson, said the recent launch of free breakfast clubs at Fishergate Primary School would leave other families in the city without access to the free meals disappointed.
Conservative leader, Cllr Chris Steward, criticised Labour’s free meal pledge, stating that it had only so far amounted to only a few pilot programmes after two years.
Cllr Bob Webb, Labour’s Children and Education spokesperson, argued that the opponents of the scheme were playing political games while the council were trying to do something positive for families.
It follows the recent introduction of free breakfast clubs at Fishergate Primary School, initially being rolled out to children from less fortunate families.
There are plans for the service to be offered to more pupils in the future.
Fishergate has joined Clifton’s Burton Green Primary School and Acomb’s Westfield Primary Community School in the council’s free school meals pilot, which launched in January 2024.
All children at Burton Green have been offered free breakfasts, while pupils in years three to six at Westfield have been receiving free lunches.
Meanwhile, St Paul’s Church of England Primary School in Holgate is among one of the 750 schools across England chosen to participate in the Government’s free breakfast club pilot, starting from April.
The pledge to ensure that every primary school child receives a free meal was made by Labour in May 2023, prior to them taking power.
The estimated cost of meeting Labour’s pledge to provide a meal to every child in York’s 57 primary schools is around £3m.
Much of the funding for York Council’s trials comes from private donations, including those from businesses to the Hungry Minds appeal, run by the Two Ridings Community Foundation.
The council is increasingly focusing on free breakfast clubs rather than lunches, as they provide better value for money and results, according to Cllr Webb.
Early benefits from the trials so far include improved concentration and behaviour, as well as helping parents with living costs and child care in the case of breakfast clubs, according to council-commissioned research.
However, Liberal Democrat Cllr Widdowson said that although the expansion of the trial to Fishergate was a positive development, it still fell short of Labour’s commitment.
She said: “Labour promised at the last local election that they would ensure free school lunches for all primary school children in York.
“This announcement about a limited expansion of a trial of free breakfasts will come as a huge disappointment to thousands of families across York who have been badly let down by Labour.
“Liberal Democrats have consistently said the Government can and should deliver free school meals for all primary school children and all secondary school children from families in receipt of Universal Credit.”
Conservative Cllr Steward welcomed the move towards free breakfasts rather than lunches, which most children in need are already receiving.
However, he added that the expansion of the trial to a third school does not hide the failure to reach Labour’s goal.
He said: “Labour’s manifesto gave a clear promise and nearly half way through the administration it is a modest fraction of pupils able to benefit.
“Labour’s pledge was evidently totally unfunded and has been embarrassingly broken with just the odd pilot here and there.”
Labour’s Children and Education executive member, Cllr Webb, defended the plan, saying they remained ambitious about their goals and claimed opposition parties had been negative from the start.
He added the administration had put an extra £50,000 in its Budget for 2025-6 to help York Hungry Minds expand fundraising, and that national breakfast club trials showed Labour was delivering.
Cllr Webb said: “The Liberal Democrats have been against this from the very beginning, it’s quite sad, they want to focus on funding and that in their view this could not be done.
“If I could have, I would have clicked my fingers and made it all happen straight away, but we are doing this and we’re seeing from organisations and very generous people in York who want to get involved with this.
“We’re choosing to spend money on some of York’s most vulnerable children and what we’re seeing locally and nationally from Labour is investment in them, which is something we haven’t seen in this country for a very long time.”