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Positive anti-poverty summit soured by possible roll-back on Free School Meals

The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) and the STUC Women’s Committee have warned of massive resistance to any reversal on the SNP free school meals pledge and called for an acceleration, not a roll-back of the programme.

STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer said:

“We were enthusiastic participants in the summit today. Our key message is that better and fairer wages tied to redistributive taxation must lie at the heart of strategies to tackling poverty and inequality. Current levels of in-work poverty are totally unacceptable and place further pressure on our under-funded benefits system. We need to see real action coming out of this summit.

“Suggestions this morning that the Scottish Government might consider breaking pledges to extend free school meals is not what we are looking to hear. Investing in the health of all of our young people and removing stigma is a key priority and any roll-back will be fiercely resisted.”

Andrea Bradley, Chair of the STUC Women’s Committee and General Secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland said:

“The STUC Women’s Committee would be deeply concerned if the First Minster’s comments around a potential reversal of the Scottish Government’s progressive policy on universal free school meals expansion as reported today, were to be put into action. 1 in 4 children in Scotland were living in poverty before the onset of the cost-of-living crisis, which the previous First Minister declared a humanitarian emergency. Now, food inflation of 20%, together with exorbitant energy costs, and stagnant wages is making life even harder and more miserable for hundreds of thousands of parents in Scotland and their children - many already missing out on a decent meal at school because of the stigma or the bureaucracy of means-testing. Now is the time to accelerate the roll-out of universal free school meals- not to roll-back on what were essential promises.”