Children in one of Britain’s most deprived boroughs will have to go without free school meals over half term.
Knowsley Council said it was unable to extend its voucher system over the break as the government would not fund the scheme outside term time.
Cllr Jayne Aston, the borough’s finance chief, said: “Despite our best efforts, and those of other organisations, we have been unable to persuade the government to recognise the challenge many families are facing and fund the vouchers over the school half term break.”
Although the government agreed to fund free school meals during the Easter holidays, it has so far refused to extend provision into either half term or the summer break.
Since the start of the lockdown, Knowsley has been operating its own scheme providing vouchers for children who would otherwise receive free school meals.
However, it has already had to scale back its scheme, limiting vouchers to those eligible for means tested meals and excluding children in Reception and Years 1 and 2 who would otherwise be covered by the universal free school meals provision.
The council said this was due to a forecast £10 million shortfall between what the authority expects the coronavirus crisis to cost and the amount of extra funding it has received from the government.
Cllr Aston said: “The Council is already looking at a huge funding gap running into millions of pounds which is creating an unprecedented pressure on our finances, therefore we are simply unable to cover the cost of blanket free school meals provision to cover the holiday period.”
In a statement, the council added that it was considering reopening schools in the borough to a wider number of pupils after June 1, but only if it was safe to do so.
This statement on the council’s website said: “The council is working closely with all schools to help them plan for the phased, safe opening of schools and will consider the provision of free school meals as part of that work.”
