Schools are “likely to face a range of delivery challenges” in providing the new free breakfast clubs, the Department for Education has said when publishing contracts for expert advisers who will help schools.
The DfE has published 19 contracts, worth a total of £629,850, for experts who will deliver tailored support and advice to schools in the breakfast club early adopters programme.
Government guidance had promised that the 750 schools in the early adopter scheme, which launched this month, would have access to a pool of expert advisers.
The DfE has now published contracts for these advisers, saying that they will ensure that it is able to deliver on the aims of the early adopter programme.
“Schools are likely to face a range of delivery challenges, including relating to workforce and estates, which we anticipate, for those schools where these issues are particularly difficult, will require bespoke support,” the DfE said.
Free breakfast clubs in schools
The contracts all began on 1 April and will last until 31 March 2026, and give advisers flexibility to manage their own time.
As part of their applications for the contracts, the advisers had to demonstrate expertise in areas such as designing a high-quality breakfast club, building a breakfast club into a school strategy to support behaviour and attendance improvements, staffing, engaging with private and voluntary providers, effective food procurement, ensuring that breakfast clubs are inclusive, maximising use of the existing school estate and engaging pupils, parents and staff to ensure success of breakfast club provision.
Of the 19 published contracts, nine have been awarded to charity Magic Breakfast, four to charity Family Action and two to the Inspiring Leaders partnership of trusts.
Others have gone to consultancies, and an out-of-school club. Organisations were able to provide more than one adviser.
The advisers will give feedback on the barriers that schools are facing in delivering free breakfast clubs, which will inform DfE policy development for the national rollout of breakfast clubs. They will also support the DfE in advising what level of support schools need to overcome barriers.
Advisers will be given data to monitor progress in delivery and address “low engagement” with support offered by the DfE. Schools that identify problems will be able to access the pool of advisers, with the DfE helping to allocate casework.
Advisers will use peer-to-peer networks of early adopters in local areas to deliver training and advice to schools on a larger scale.
The daily rate for advisers is redacted in the published contracts. But the contract value differs by adviser, with some worth around £44,000 and others around £17,000.
Dozens of the original early adopter schools dropped out of the scheme citing inadequate funding. However, the DfE said more had been added, replacing those that dropped out.
The pilot scheme is funded at 60p per pupil to cover both staffing and food costs, and 78p per pupil on free school meals. Schools also got an initial one-off £500 for set up, and a lump sum of £1,099 to cover 22 April to July.
Speaking in the House of Commons earlier this year, Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, said: “Many school leaders have raised concerns about the proposed funding rates, which are reportedly around 60p per child per day.
“If the pilots clearly show that those rates are insufficient, will ministers commit to reviewing and increasing them? Schools simply cannot afford to make savings elsewhere, such as in teaching budgets.”
Nearly two-thirds of primary school headteachers, responding to a Teacher Tapp poll earlier this year, said they did not believe the breakfast club scheme would help to tackle pupil absence. However, teachers working in more deprived areas were more likely to be optimistic about the scheme.
For the latest education news and analysis delivered every weekday morning, sign up for the Tes Daily newsletter
