Star comment: School meals and many jobs at risk

But today we have the figures – or, at least, the figures that Shropshire Council is putting forward.

And on the basis of those there is very good reason for parents of children at primary schools in Shropshire to worry.

Not only parents, but staff working in the school meals service who face losing their jobs.

Details of the potential effects of the alteration to funding guidelines passed down by central Government have been sent by Shropshire Council to school governors and head teachers.

The measures will mean school governors will be able to make their own decisions about how the school meals service is provided.

That sounds like a step forward in giving local schools the power to control their own affairs, taking into account all the particular local factors.

However, if the power to decide comes hand in hand with less money to work with, it is an exercise in setting schools free which is theoretical and academic.

Shropshire Council says that from initial calculations by Shire Services, the current school meals provider, of the 131 primary schools in the

Shropshire Council area – we are not talking about Telford & Wrekin here – there will be 74 at risk of not having enough money to maintain the current level of school meals service.

Hardest hit are schools with fewer than 150 pupils, which means small rural schools. The 250 school meals staff at those 74 schools will be at risk of redundancy.

Schools will have a number of options when they consider how to cope with the new landscape. Their capability to run their own affairs should not be underestimated.

But with a new system in which they are faced with maintaining the same service with less money, it is clear that there are stiff challenges ahead.