National School Breakfast Week – learning from the National School Breakfast Programme

Schools order the amount of food they need from us, and the programme subsidises 75% of the cost of food and delivery. Schools can change the amount of food every week, and the food we provide always meets School Food Standards. As a programme supporting up to 2,700 schools across England at any one time, we can achieve great value for schools by purchasing food from our suppliers in bulk and by negotiating competitive delivery prices. Our dedicated team supports new schools into the programme, guiding them expertly through set-up and delivery planning to help schools provide good quality breakfasts. We offer a support line open 8.30am-5pm Monday to Friday, a huge variety of online resources and many opportunities for schools to share best practice with each other. We know that schools really value the ability to share with each other what is working, rather than receiving funding and then being expected to work it all out for themselves.

What impact have we seen from the NSBP?

It goes without saying that providing breakfasts to hundreds of thousands of pupils every school day reduces the number of pupils in England who start the school day hungry, an important goal in and of itself. But the NSBP is so much more than food – it has a profound impact on the school day, for all children and young people, not just those who receive breakfast, and for teachers too, and sets them all up to thrive.

Having the right breakfast supports children and young people’s concentration and has been seen to improve their behaviour in the classroom, as they are more focussed and ready to learn. This benefits their peers too, by supporting a better environment for learning and it makes a big difference to teachers too.

The softer start to the school day is also beneficial to pupils’ mental health and wellbeing, allowing them time to meet with friends, or engage with those they might not usually meet during the school day, fostering a wider sense of community within the school. This softer start can be particularly useful for those who are anxious or have additional needs, enabling them to engage with support staff before the formal start to the day. Providing this softer start, and a reason for children and young people to attend school helps reduce lateness and improve attendance.

The wider benefits of a healthy and nutritious breakfast at the start of the school day have been reflected in our many surveys with headteachers and breakfast leaders over the last 6 years of delivery. We have also surveyed thousands of pupils and parents and carers to understand the impact of a free school breakfast from their perspective too.

In 2023 most headteachers reported they had seen a big improvement or some improvement in the following areas:

Achieving the best impact from investment in breakfast provision

Effective future breakfast provision needs:

1. To ensure that it reaches the pupils who need it most

The NSBP has been successful at working with schools to bespoke their provision to ensure that breakfast reaches the pupils who need it most. This has meant lots of creative work to identify and support pupils who need a school breakfast, without stigma. This inclusive approach, which leaves no child behind, has been crucial in maximising the impact of the NSBP for everyone. As we move towards a model of universal breakfast provision and an increasing focus on the provision of childcare through that provision, we need to ensure that a focus is maintained on ensuring that breakfast still reaches the pupils that need it the most.

2. A national approach

We know that schools really value being part of a national programme that collates and shares best practice, but that can also provide ongoing individual support to schools, so that they can maximise accessibility, uptake and impact of their breakfast provision. A national approach makes it easier to set clear expectations and ensure equity of provision so that a pupil in Cornwall gets the same breakfast as a pupil in Newcastle. It also helps with quality assurance, easy sharing of knowledge and expertise with schools and enables comparable data collection processes so that impact can be monitored carefully and consistently across the country.

3. Continual and appropriate monitoring of uptake, quality and impact

We have learnt continuously through the provision of the NSBP over more than six years. The programme has evolved every year as we have learnt more. In response, we have developed our support to meet the needs of the schools, pupils, and parents/carers. As well as putting responsive support services and data collection in placethe views of schools, parents/carers and pupils should be gathered regularly in order to ensure the programme delivery remains responsive to need as it changes over time. Continual monitoring, enables us to confirm that schools are delivering a quality breakfast in a way that is attractive, accessible and non-stigmatising to their own school communities. The importance of a focus on quality needs to be maintained as we move towards universal provision.

4. Clarity on government implementation plans and the long term future of this policy

The current policy commitment from the government does not yet provide the operational detail that schools will need or a timetable for implementation, We are keen to support the Westminster government in thinking through how this could work. Key issues to clarify include what level of funding will be available, what delivery model will be expected of schools, and what will happen to other types of schools that are currently eligible for supportthrough the NSBP, such as secondary schools, SEND schools or alternative provision. As a nation we should expect that all children and young people are able to have a healthy breakfast, whether at home or school, so that they all have an equal chance to make the most of their school day. We are committed to supporting the delivery of universal breakfast provision in primary schools however we can.