Liberal Democrat councillors Garth Harkness and Julia Turner will be calling for the council to campaign for a greater take up on free school meals. They are proposing a motion on Wednesday 7^th September 2016 calling for Oldham council to do more to promote the take up of free school meals and automatically enroll students where possible.

Councillor Garth Harkness, Liberal Democrat for Saddleworth North said “Everyone needs to do all they can to eliminate any stigma attached to free school meals.  A substantial meal helps improve concentration and save parents money. The school also benefit by receiving the pupil premium to help raise attainment. They can only get this if they are registered.

Councillor Julia Turner, Liberal Democrat for Crompton added “Calderdale council look at people receiving council tax reduction and housing benefit who are not registered for free school meals and then automatically registers them.  This gave them additional pupil-premium funding of £685,000”

Councillor Garth Harkness concluded “At around only an 80% take up rate. We need to promote the take up of free school meals to work towards tackling child hunger and enable schools to access the additional funding to increase progress for students”