SIC denies free meals will cost jobs

Hans J Marter

1 December, 2008

SUGGESTIONS that some teachers in Shetland could lose their jobs to free up money to pay for the Scottish government's free school meal policy were rejected yesterday (Sunday).

In a press statement on Friday, Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Peter Peacock claimed the SNP government had to ensure that Shetland Islands Council did not to have to cut teacher numbers to fund the measure.

He added that implementing the policy in the isles had not been costed yet.

Free school meals for primary 1 to 3 pupils is one of the SNP government’s flagship policies, but is opposed by the LibDems, the Conservatives and Labour, who all say the policy has not been funded and would cause further problems for cash-strapped local authorities.

Audrey Edwards, for the SIC's school services, said that the department was concerned about the additional cost, but was adamant that the implementation would have no impact on jobs. "No teacher will be made redundant," she said.

"We will not incur any extra cost for extra staff or extensions to existing school kitchens as our uptake of school meals is almost 90 per cent anyway," she added.

She also said the national policy had been costed and council members were aware of it. She added that the expectation was that this could be met from existing budgets.

"We are going to lose income, which will be the most significant cost. I estimated it to be in the region of £200,000 a year, and assuming that the free provision will increase the uptake further, I estimated a further £50,000 if the uptake would go up to 100 per cent," she said.

Around 750 primary one to three kids in Shetland would benefit from the policy, of which 87.4 per cent, or 690, are already getting a warm meal a day at school.

Following a very successful pilot project in five local authority areas across Scotland, the free school meals for all primary one to three pupils could be implemented as of August 2010.

Mr Peacock is calling on the government to make new money available to local authorities to pay for the measure.