Amanda Martin MP has welcomed the announcement that 500,000 more children across over 2,000 schools will benefit from the expansion of Labour’s free breakfast clubs next year on a visit to Court Lane School breakfast club.
Amanda has celebrated the announcement that thousands more children will get the ‘best start in life’. After seeing first hand how the breakfast club trial at Court Lane is helping parents with work life balance and in their pockets. Amanda knows this next rollout will really help local families in Portsmouth.
Next year over 2,000 new schools are set to join the programme, ensuring that thousands more children benefit from the improvements in attendance, attainment and behaviour which school leaders are already seeing.
The programme, which is set to give parents 95 hours back each year and save up to £450 in childcare costs, backs working families, with government polling finding eight in ten say breakfast clubs help them to get to work on time and drop their kids off at school more easily.
The first wave of the government’s free breakfast clubs has already seen two million meals served, with headteachers and parents welcoming their impact on everything from making the morning routine easier, to helping family finances, and improving children’s attendance, behaviour and attainment.
The latest progress update follows the landmark expansion of Labour’s funded childcare hours scheme to 30 hours per week, from 9 months to the start of school – benefitting over half a million families now eligible for savings of up to £7,500 a year.
Further details on the roll out of the breakfast clubs programme will follow in the autumn.
Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour’s Education Secretary, said: “The start of the national rollout of free breakfast clubs will be an historic change in working families’ daily routines and is another example of this Labour government making good on its promises to deliver the change the British people voted for.
“This is Labour choosing a path of renewal towards a fairer country – breaking down the barriers to opportunity and ensuring every child starts school ready to learn.
“Through our Plan for Change, Labour is rolling out free breakfast clubs and school-based nurseries to make working parents’ lives easier and give all children the best start in life.”
Amanda Martin, MP for Portsmouth North, said: “Through my to Court Lane, I’ve learnt just how valuable breakfast clubs will be for families in Portsmouth, boosting attendance and attainment as well as keeping money in parents’ pockets.”
“That’s why it’s a shame these clubs were only available in one in ten schools under the Conservatives. Labour will make them available to every child.
“It’s clear to see that this is a child-centred Labour government, determined to give children in [constituency] the best start in life.’
