Free school meals “nettle that must be grasped” says AEP
The general secretary of the Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP) has said that all political parties must get to grips with the stigma surrounding free school meals.
His comments follow a survey from the Liberal Democrats that found that Local Educational Authorities (LEAs) believe that the greatest barrier to the take up of free school meals is stigma.
In an interview with politics.co.uk Brian Harrison-Jennings, general secretary of the AEP for eleven years, said that the problem of stigmatisation is “so common, so frequent so endemic that is its not considered worthy of being referred to educational psychologists.”
Mr Harrison-Jennings said that he had previously entreated both the Conservative and Labour parties to take the issue more seriously.
“At last some party has grasped the nettle” he said.
He said that the problem is “every bit as important as Asperger’s or autism or dyslexia” adding that as a “man made problem” it is one that educationalists should be able to sort out.
The AEP’s members would be willing to work with all local schools in order to improve distribution systems, he said.
Mr Harrison-Jennings added that the receipt of free school meals was often used by bullies, particularly girls, as a means to torment others.
As such efforts to change the distribution of free school meals could have a massive impact on the holistic well being of the school.
However, he warned politicians that you “can’t design a system that would work in the BBC canteen”.
Children, Mr Harrison-Jennings said, were incredibly adept at “breaking the code” and discovering which of their peers are receiving free meals.
Running though examples of systems that have been tried and failed, he said that ultimately those with money had access to choice of food or payment methods and were always distinguishable.
But he gave a cautious welcome to the suggestion of smart cards with an unique pin, but only if these were used by all pupils within a school.
