Debate contribution: Holiday Hunger

Debate contribution by Mr Pat Sheehan on 19 March 2024.

MLA: Mr Pat Sheehan
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 19 March 2024
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Holiday Hunger
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4279672

Text

The motion is about giving children and young people the best start in life. Approximately 100,000 children and young people in the North are entitled to free school meals. The free school meal programme is designed to support families on the lowest incomes. It takes away a significant expense for parents whilst ensuring that children get a nutritious meal. Sinn Féin has been trying to make progress on tackling holiday hunger for a number of years. Unfortunately, it took the onset of a global health pandemic to finally see action on it with the introduction of direct payments to families in lieu of free school meals during school holidays. While that approach was welcome, it was not legislated for, so there was no certainty for families from term to term about whether the financial support would be there. I acknowledge the fact that the Executive made ring-fenced funding available for holiday hunger. Two DUP Ministers introduced that. I am fairly confident that, had any Minister been in place in March 2023, that funding would have continued. I attempted in the last mandate to introduce a private Member's Bill to make holiday hunger support permanent, but, unfortunately, we ran out of time before it could be introduced. A few years ago, Marcus Rashford, who scored a couple of goals at the weekend, received widespread publicity in the media, was feted in 10 Downing Street and got a gong from the Queen, as far as I know, for his campaign to introduce holiday hunger payments across the water. The Executive and Assembly introduced holiday hunger payments before that. Of course, the local media here were tripping over themselves to congratulate the Executive and Assembly for bringing that in — no, I do not think that they were at all. I do not think that they even mentioned it. Given the publicity around and the popularity of Marcus Rashford's campaign, it is clear that people see it as an important issue. In my research for my private Member's Bill, I found that children who have access to a varied and wholesome diet perform better in school than their peers who, unfortunately, do not have access to the same diet. While the links between educational underachievement and deprivation are well known, the evidence also suggests that, when those children return to school after the holidays, they can often be weeks or months intellectually behind classmates who have access to a more wholesome diet during the holidays. Therefore, from a strategic policy point of view, tackling holiday hunger is essential. If we are serious about giving our children the best start in life, tackling holiday hunger is essential. If the Department is serious about its vision, which is that:
“Every child and young person is happy, learning and succeeding”,
tackling holiday hunger is essential. If children are going to school hungry, they will not be happy, learning or succeeding. Poverty and educational underachievement are inextricably linked. Young people from working-class backgrounds enter our education system already at a disadvantage when compared with many of their peers. It is well known that the best predictor of a young person's educational outcome is his or her socio-economic background. Why is it, then, that, when it comes to budget cuts, the programmes that support our most disadvantaged are always first in the firing line? We remember all the programmes that had their funding withdrawn or cut last year. Holiday hunger, of course, was one of them. Another was the Engage programme, which helps young people who have fallen behind in their learning to catch up. Healthy Happy Minds assists children who have emotional and well-being issues. There is also a programme that provides free digital devices for children. There is Bookstart, free period products, extended schools and sports programmes. Of course, the cuts to all those programmes disproportionately affected those who are already the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. If there is one achievement that the Minister could have during the mandate, it is that the type of wrap-around support that is needed for children who are vulnerable, disadvantaged or are falling behind is put on a statutory footing, so that, when it comes to making cuts, it will not be the low-hanging fruit. It just makes no sense educationally to cut all those programmes. As we know from evidence, where children fall behind in school and do not get extra support to catch up, the likelihood is that they will not catch up. They are the young people who leave school without qualifications. Of course, the evidence also tells us that young people who leave school without qualifications are more likely to be unemployed, to have mental health issues, to have chronic physical ill health issues and to end up in the criminal justice system. Society pays for it in the long run. It makes no educational, social or economic sense not to support the children who need that support in our schools. The bottom line in all that is that the British Government have failed to properly fund public services. Over a decade of Tory cuts has stripped hundreds of millions of pounds in real terms from the education budget. A few short months ago, the British Government acknowledged that this place was underfunded. That should have been a turning point, but, instead, their disregard for people here continued. Just last week, we debated their sleight of hand on the Fresh Start money, which should have been spent on building integrated and shared education schools but is now plugging gaps elsewhere instead. That is why it is absolutely crucial that parties continue to work together to bring pressure on the British Government to live up to their obligations to the people and public services here. The current context also makes it imperative that the Communities Minister bring forward an anti-poverty strategy as soon as possible. That strategy will have an impact on all the issues that we are talking about: childhood hunger, the cost of education, educational underachievement etc. I appeal to the Education Minister to engage meaningfully on all those issues with his counterpart in the Department for Communities. The appeal has been made for Ministers and Departments to work together as if it is just a good idea. No — it is a statutory obligation. Under the Children's Services Co-operation Act 2015, Ministers and Departments must work together on cross-cutting issues. There are no more important issues than poverty and hunger among children and underachievement as a result of the lack of support in school. The motion has at its core low-income families who are struggling to make ends meet and 100,000 children who face a cliff edge at the end of term. Let us all work together to ensure that no child goes hungry and give those families the support that they need.

1,139 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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