LACA chair Judith Gregory outlines four key objectives for 2025

The objectives include:

• Continue with the messaging for England focusing on the differences in funding, so that there is consistency across all four UK nations along with the ringfencing of funding.
• Use every opportunity to promote the great work that is being achieved by school caterers across the UK and ensure that LACA is the ‘go to’ organisation for all things school food.
• Provide expertise to the DfE with the design of the planned free breakfast provision for primary schools in England.
• Continue the focus on extending benefit based Free School Meals to all families on Universal Credit and exploring auto enrolment.

Judith also told delegates that the inadequate funding of school meals that the organisation has been campaigning about for some time will only be exacerbated by measures in the Autumn Budget, including a rise in employers National Insurance contributions and an increase of the National Minimum Wage.

This graph highlights food prices have increased (since 2020) by 50.34% but universal free school meals funding has only increased by 2.34% and benefit based free school meals funding has increased by just 2.15%. The London living wage during this time has increased by 7.26% and the UK living wage has gone up by 8.31%.