On 30 June, during an urgent question to the Department for Education, Stephen raised with the Minister the possibility of children missing out on food support during the holidays due to pandemic restrictions.
Data released by the Department for Education has shown that around 5.1% of all pupils in state-funded schools did not attend class for Covid-19 related reasons last week – a total of 375,000 children. This increased from 3.3% on 17 June and 1.2% on 10 June.
Many are worried that this will continue into the summer, preventing children from accessing activity programmes and free school meals over the holidays.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Stephen asked the Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, “can the Secretary of State give an assurance that, whatever happens, children who are entitled to access food support over the summer will still be able to do that?”
In his response, Gavin Williamson said the Government will look to ensure that funding is made available to local authorities so that they can continue to provide free school meals.
You can watch the full clip below.