The Government should extend free school meals to students at Harlow College and other further education establishments.
I recently raised the issue in a parliamentary debate.
There is a loophole in the system that has been damaging the life-chances of young people at Harlow College and elsewhere for too long.
Harlow College has achieved the best success rates in the country because it does everything it can to help those from poorer incomes, with apprenticeship programmes for young people leaving care or for single parents returning to work and with its own version of free school meals, even though it has no such obligation and little funds.
* Harlow College estimates that at least 350 of its students are in severe need of free school meals - These are young people who turn up to college hungry every day, and whose education is at significant risk as a result.
* Harlow College does not get funding directly to help such students but has used the new 16-to-18 bursary scheme, which replaced education maintenance allowance, to give some of them a food subsidy of around £1.20 a day, three days a week, through the campus canteen.
That is not as generous as free school meals, but the college is doing what it can with a limited budget. In Harlow only one school has a sixth form so the vast majority of children go to Harlow College.
* The money which Harlow College receives is insufficient to provide full meals through the week.
College principal Colin Hindmarch believes that what he does is necessary to help the poorest students. I admire many things about Harlow College and the principal but, above all, the belief that everyone can get good results, no matter what start they have had in life, if the college gives support. The problem, however, is made harder because the college does not know who is likely to be hungry.
* There is a need for schools to share data on free schools meals with Harlow College.
Eighty secondary schools send pupils there, and most of the schools do not share data on free school meals with the college, which therefore has to guess, in essence, who needs help and who is at risk.
* The Association of Colleges estimates the cost of extending the right to free meals to college students at around £38 million.
Much of that money could be found through efficiencies; for example, the free schools budget is running a surplus currently, so perhaps some of the money could be taken from there. The moral case for free school meals means we need a fair deal between students and taxpayers, something that is respectful of both sides.
We must help the hungry students, to give them the energy to concentrate but it is also fair to ask them to work hard and to apply themselves, rather than to attend only; that was a problem with EMA in the past.
* We cannot have FE colleges that are only for the wealthy. The problem is that only wealthy students who can afford school meals will be encouraged to go.
There is a cost-benefit argument for some form of free school meals, or a subsidised canteen as in Harlow College, so I urge the Government to look at obliging schools to share data with FE colleges on which pupils need free school meals; more financial support for FE colleges, to level the playing field with sixth-form colleges and schools, and topping up the new 16-to-18 bursary scheme; and, finally, embedding the DNA of the universal credit in entitlements such as free school meals, to show that it is a contract and not a handout.
* If lower-earner taxpayers are to make a contribution, it is only fair for students to offer something in return, such as the promise to work hard at their studies.
The Government have the ambition of 100 per cent of young people aged 16 to 18 participating in education and training by 2015. The experience of Harlow College shows that fair provision of free school meals will be absolutely essential to achieving that.
Link to video of debate: http://roberthalfon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/video-free-school-meals-for-harlow.html
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