Headteacher: 'Going to be tough' to serve free school meals
34 councils in England have told 5 live they're having to provide money from their own budgets to pay for the government's free school meals policy from September.
Local authorities had been told the universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) policy would be fully funded by government, but many are having to raid their maintenance budgets and others are passing the costs onto the schools themselves.
The headteacher of the Windmill Primary School in Oxfordshire, Lynn Knapp, told 5 live's Stephen Chittenden it would be "tough" to provide free, hot meals for all pupils aged four to seven.
5 live asked every council in England how much they received from central government and how much the schools had told them they needed to bring their kitchens and buildings up to scratch. Out of the 152 asked, 99 replied, 34 said they hadn’t had enough money from the government to meet their school’s needs.
This clip is from 5 live Drive on Wednesday the 16th of July.
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