250 catering jobs face axe over school meals change
More than 250 jobs could be lost if primary schools across the county axe their hot school meals service from April, costing Shropshire Council nearly £500,000 in redundancy payouts.
A briefing sent to headteachers by the council reveals that 74 of the 131 Shropshire primary schools are classified as ‘at risk’ of losing their hot meals service for pupils.
The council’s catering arm, Shire Services, currently provides each of the 131 primary schools in Shropshire with a school meals service, but from April the Government is changing the way it funds such meals.
The schools, which cater for up to 20,000 pupils, will have to apply directly to the Government for funding, which will be calculated on how many pupils they have and how many are eligible for free meals.
As a result Shire Services has calculated that 257 catering jobs are at risk.
An email sent on behalf of Cecilia Motley, the council’s Cabinet member for education and skills, and seen by the Shropshire Star, suggests that a ‘worst case scenario’ could see Shire Services having to pick up a redundancy bill for £436,574.
The information, also sent to school governors, said: “From initial calculations undertaken by Shire Services, the current school meals provider, it would appear that 56 per cent of primary schools are likely to have insufficient funding to cover the cost of a school meals service to the level currently provided.
“In general terms the majority of schools with less than 150 pupils on roll will not have sufficient funding to provide a hot school meals service.”
It added: “In the 74 at risk schools some 250 staff are employed in the school meals service whose jobs will be at risk of redundancy.
“In addition there would be seven head office and operational staff at risk of redundancy in order to reflect the reduced income levels. The redundancy costs for this group of staff is £436,574, based on the worst case scenario.”
Comments for: "250 catering jobs face axe over school meals change"
who cares im allright jack
Im not some left wing commy i agree a fair days work for a fair days pay.Why are people suprised the Tories took awy the milk for kids so why not the grub as well.People must realise the tories dont believe in a welfare state.IF there hadnt been a banking crisis they would of created a recession anyway so they could bring in their reforms(cuts).I know of downs syndrome yes down syndrome people being put on these back to work classes at colleges. I know some may want to work ,but most seem confused and dazed and afraid they will lose there benefit if they dont attend.I know they wont but why put them through this ordeal. I have friends with learning difflcultys who find the benefit system a minefield losing their job seekers because they are to frightenet to turn up. Yes agreed there are scroungers but who is helping the thosands who truly are in need not this goverment thats for sure.
P mason
I read in the paper today regarding school dinner cuts. I think back to when I was in school in the 1970's? At primary school we had excellent meals and milk in the morning. Lets not forget the strikes, recession and the 3 day week that was much worse than it is now. This government is cutting in my opinion an essential need for our young people. Perhaps they can apply for funding from central government but I am sure there will be cuts in the workforce??
I watched a few years ago as Jamie Oliver increased the profile and the need to have good quality meals made with good ingredients.im sorry to say that his excellent efforts have all been dismissed in favour of deficit cuts?
In a democracy education and healthcare are of paramount importance for the well being of a nation which will prosper and develop for the long term. Many countries aspire to what we have or had as the case maybe.
It's time our politicians all started looking at the well being of this country...
As for the country since then ? 35 years later and were still in a mess, unemployment,deficit, and little future to look forward to if it's left upto the politicians.
Come on Britain lets have a vision for our country and stick to it !
P mason
helen
I would have thought that headteachers and governors would be more concerned about the children in their schools losing hot school dinners and the impact of the loss of jobs on the dinner staff than the amount of money Shropshire Council will have to find for redundancy payments. That's the 'worst case scenario'- the loss of services our kids need and the loss of work and income for families. If councillors like Cecilia Motley don't understand or care about this, they need to go.
twiggo
And why pray tell, can't this £500,000 "worst case scenario" redundancy cost be funnelled into the school meals short fall?
If there's that kind of money to make people redundant, why can 't you use it to keep people in work instead?
Where there's a will there's a way.........
Shrewsbury Mum
If Shropshire Council chose to put money into preserving our school dinners service in the face of these changes then it wouldn't have to find £436,000 for redundancy payments and their dinner staff wouldn't be facing the dole queue. I know where I would rather my council tax went. Councillors are supposed to represent us and work on our behalf but Keith Barrow's lot lost sight of this long ago.
Tracy Smart
So....Shropshire county schools receive significantly less funding per pupil than any other county in the UK as it is, the number of children receiving free school meals - and that have been eligible to receive them in the past 6 years- directly impacts on the amount of pupil premium each school receives.
This premium is used by schools to help disadvantaged pupils- the qualifier is whether that child is in receipt of free school meals.
In the absence of free school meals-how will this premium be calculated? Or are we to expect that Shropshire County Children will be further disadvantaged by these inequitable proposals?!
Additionally, It is a legal requirement for schools to supply school meals -according to the education act (s) of the 20th century...of course government after government has set out to try and reduce the extent of its obligations.
The council needs to dig deeper into its non ring fenced budget and the some £40 Million it has stashed for a rainy day to maintain the school meals service. Any action otherwise is miserly and will be remembered by the electorate as such.
Angela Hales
Next step will be finishing school early so they can cut back even more
James Balderidge
If Meole Brace secondary school is a taste of things to come, school meal times will become so shambolic (they have some kind of two week rolling rota so that children's dinnertimes shift about between before 12 and after 1pm) that our kids metabolism will be so shot that they won't be able to learn properly anyway, with or without a hot dinner.