Free School Meals - Essay Example

? ESSAY: FREE SCHOOL MEALS By Introduction Free school meals policy was passed by the United Kingdom education department to enable all pupils have access to meals while in school. This was done regardless of their social background, color, or race. It is important to highlight that this policy was passed after it was realized that most of the young pupils from the poor families went to school without proper meals. This adversely affected their concentration in class and so there became a need to strategize on ways to help come out of the situation. This paper delves in illustrating how the free meals policy in school has brought equality, independence, and inclusion among the pupils in pre-primary schools and students in post primary schools (Cross 2009) It is noted that this policy has however not stopped those pupils that are able to carry packed meals. The report found that providing hot lunches is more nutritious than bringing in a packed lunch, of which only 1 per cent meet the nutritional standards that currently apply to school food. This development in the England schools improved performance – students in pilot areas were two months ahead of their peers elsewhere. Chris Hazzard retaliated the importance of the free school meals when he said, “Many children were going to school without a proper lunch due to families being unable to either supply a packed lunch or pay for school meals.” (Gordon 2013) Free school Meals are services that are provided to school going children living in England that meet current criteria as set out by the government. Universal free school meals will help give every child the chance in life that they deserve, building a stronger economy and fairer society. “Free School Meals are a crucial entitlement for families living in poverty” (children society). It is noted from the above quote that Free School Meals, FSM, helps to make sure individuals from poor financial backgrounds get help for their child to receive a free meal within school hours. This can help the child to remain healthy that is a prerequisite for academic excellence, and evidence over the years has shown that if children eat healthy it boosts their concentration levels, and this has a huge positive impact towards classroom behavior and good performance of the pupils. This has been emphasized and stressed by Nick Clegg, former prime minister when he said that, "A healthy hot meal gives children the ability to concentrate and do well in the classroom" (Cross 2009) “Healthy eating can stabilize children’s energy, sharpen their minds, and even out their moods,” Nutrition for Children. I wish to retaliate from the above that School meals for the children from poor families help them develop good and healthy eating habits. This is because their parents may not be able to provide proper and healthy diets at home due to insufficient income. A balanced healthy eating habit is required for every child developmental needs in biological, physical and psychological advancements. However, it must be brought to attention that the FSM as earlier stated is only available under certain criterion, which is available only if the parent of the child is in receipt of income support, income based jobseekers allowance, income related employment, any form of revenue and support allowance under part V1 of the Immigration Act of 1999 (Gordon 2013) The guaranteed element of state pension credit, and Child Tax Credits were also key factors put into consideration by the Government of United Kingdom before they dispatched the free school meals to the pupils. However, it must be stressed and vividly put into consideration that families in receipt of the Working Tax element of Tax credits are excluded and do not qualify under this policy for the free school meals. ”Giving people something for nothing is rarely unpopular, even when they are paying for it through their taxes.” as it was said by Ross Hawkins .Based on this evidence it could be suggested that the government made an assumption that because one works or was in any form of income generating activity, they could afford to feed their child. Just because an individual is in employment it does not necessarily mean they are out of the poverty threshold, in fact a workless house hold could still be in poverty due to low income levels not moving with inflation. This is because low income leads to reduction in savings. According to the Department of work and pensions, Fifty eight per cent in poverty live in homes where at least one of the adults works (Cross 2009) If a family does meet the criteria they are eligible to receive Free School Meals which the writer feels is good as this can help the low income family. The families that struggle to afford to eat or survive will be given the free meal at school, which does not seem to help the overall poverty dilemma and quandary. It does however help families that fully depend on the meal. Current statistics have shown that individuals that are entitled to claim the school meal do not appear to be actually claiming them. Benefit data from Her Majesties Revenue and Customs (HMRC) suggests that around one million four hundred thousand children aged between 4 to 15 years in England are legible and entitled to receive a free school meal (Gordon 2013). Around two hundred thousand pupils of age between 4 to 15 years appear to be entitled but are not claiming according to Department of Education United Kingdom. Therefore, this evidence may indicate whether an individual actually knows what they are entitled to. The writer herby argues that it is somewhat of importance that especially a low income family should be fully aware of what they can claim and what they can’t which can be very discouraging, frustrating and stressful if you have lack of resources which usually ties in with being in a financial situation ( Mooney 2012). The England government plan to launch new Free School Meal criteria in September 2014 in all schools in England to enhance equal treatment among students, which will give every individual regardless of how much their parents or guardians currently earn, their race, gender cutler, ethnicity, religious practices and opportunity. This is aimed at enabling them receive the free school meals which will not only help eliminate the stigmatization and discrimination that comes with receiving the free school meal, that some pupils experience during meal times, but also promote equality for every individual (Cross 2009) The FSM program will also bring inclusion in the society whereby both the infant education and disadvantaged students in further studies and sixth colleges will also benefit from the program, along with promoting independence. The meal will also help with nutritional needs that every human being has. Food helps to maintain health and keeps us healthy and strong. In order to develop, good food with all the requirements is therefore ideal for the pupils. The Education minister, John O'Dowd also emphasized this fact by saying , “We must not underestimate the important contribution which a healthy, nutritionally balanced school meal can make to a child's overall health and well-being, to learning and cognitive development and, in turn, to academic performance” (Scott 2005). Henry Dimbleby once said that “Free School Meal changes the culture in the school; it creates a one-school culture where all teachers and children eat together, rather than us and them” .From the quote above it is clearly evident that the free school meal program has helped to curb discrimination and euphoria between teachers and the pupils. This has created a peaceful coexistence, harmony, conducive learning environment, and teamwork in the schools. This has boosted the academic delivery from teachers to the pupils leading to quality results from them. From the above quote also, it could be suggested that Government is thinking about the impact that FSM has on the society. Its main objective is to ensure that everyone in the society should be treated fairly and equally and has a sense of belonging. It would be fair to say that children deliver the best start in life if they are all children are entitled to good, reliable and adequate food (Cross 2009) As a social worker, the writer believes it is inevitable and vital that we work with the service user to try to make clarifications on any issues that they might be experiencing. For example if an individual is having any problems with their benefits the social worker may want to check, access and thereafter internalize the information and help maximize as well as effectively utilize anything that may be available to helping the service users understand what they can receive or cannot receive (Gordon 2013). ”A journey of a thousand miles begin with a single stride, it is these strides that lessons are learnt and one experiences” .We learn from a young age what we perceive to be right or wrong. This depends on or cultures and ethics and how people behave within society in which they live in. This can influence their behavior, pattern and on whom they choose to socialize with. (Warren, 1993) believes” ethics are similar to a ship sailing in the sea being blown around in different ways without vision of a secure harbor in which to refuge. There are many things sailing the ship in other directions, such as consequences, emotions, virtues, principles, and duties. Values and ethics work together to govern how we see the world at large” (Cross 2009). Due to low income it is likely that a family maybe living in extreme poverty. I wish to highlight that there are only two types of poverty. First, absolute poverty, which is “a minimum standard of living based on a person’s need for food, water, clothing, and shelter. This kind of poverty is based on physical need and the satisfaction of the human basic needs. It is noted that this poverty is not concerned with the broader social and cultural need of an individual or a society. For an individual to be considered to live in absolute poverty, then the person living standards fall below this level. The person finds it difficult to feed themselves and the family, cloth and have good shelter (Scott 2005). The other type of poverty is the relative poverty. This goes beyond biological needs and well-being of an individual; this poverty is simply about insufficiency and inadequacy of funds but also the individuals or family are excluded within society, not only do individuals go without water, food and clothes these individuals cant join local amities, or get involved in society. The households are also unable to afford to send their children on school outings and other field excursions or trips. Relative poverty can also be explained as when an individual household lives in a poor living standard when compared with the living standards of the individuals in the surrounding social class. It must be stressed that both concepts of poverty lack resources (Cross 2009). There are different categories of people in society mostly put down to ignorance and oblivion on how we as individuals are perceived. As Social Workers, the writer believes that the knowledge of anti-discriminative practice among the individuals in a society can prevent this ignorance helping the Social Worker challenge the poverty by coming up with various measures to curb or eradicate it too. This is because the resources and financial support will be easily accessed by the various individuals living in the society. Anti-discriminative society will bring harmony and mutual love where members help those in problems and other forms of plight (Mooney 2012). However, the question that arises is whether social values and ethics of a social worker existed or have they been advocated for. The writer notes that a social worker must intervene in preventing harm and suffering of a service user. Applying anti-oppressive practice is an excellent example of how a social worker may work to deal with poverty, this is through their values, and ethics this is a paramount feature of social work that has set ethical and a lot of crucial and sensitive responsibilities. A social worker uses reflective practice this allows them to contest the way things may be dealt with in the places of work (Cross 2009). Social Workers must adhere to basic values, virtues, as well as principles, which are stated in the NAWS. to be human dignity and worth, social justice, the importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence these are all paramount to social work guidance and practice. Under the human rights, Act of 1998 an individual is entitled to have the rights to liberty and security, freedom of thought, freedom of expression along with protection of property (Scott 2005). Being impoverished in society can hold server stigmatization, and the way some individuals name people live in hardship is unlawful and unkind, and can be extremely unpleasant. For example a member of society better off than an individual in poverty could call a person a tramp, a ponce, a benefit scrounge, a low life, or a scum bag. The writer feels very strongly that under no circumstances would a social worker label any impoverished individual, even if our values or beliefs did stand in the way. This reflects the way that a social worker is trained to tackle poverty. This is not only through there ethics and values. People in society today do not question how things are because they have grown used to it (Hazzard 2011). However social workers look at the situation as a whole and use moral intuition, this allows them to act in a non-judgmental manor and enables the social worker to go over the situation as sometimes if things feel right does not mean they necessarily are right. A social worker is to be mindful of every decision one makes, as making the right decision is paramount to the service user and other beneficiaries, and working in their best interest is necessary (Scott 2005) Conclusion From the above discussion, Free School Meals was of much importance to the citizens of England who benefited from the scheme. It promoted equality among the individuals as it was promulgated to the pupils and then percolated to the families home. This improved the good relationship among the members of the society. Good relationship in turn developed peace leading to better ways of interacting without causing any havoc to anyone. It also trained various members of the society on how to be independent and not rely too much on assistance from others but rather work and deliver for their own sustenance as well as that of their families (Cross 2009). With the implementation of the Free School Meals, every member of the society felt included and united. This was because the poor and other middle-income earning families felt part of the nation as the government catered for their children’s needs in school especially meals. This gave them a sense of belonging and made them feel free from discrimination as well as isolation. Just as Dr. Leakey once said that a candle does not go off if it lights another one, the free school meals policy has remained in operation to help in developing the education system in the country ( Mooney 2012) References Cross M. (2009) Nutrition in Institutions, Boston, ?Barbara MacDonald Publishers, Pg 65 Gordon P. (2013) Education and Policy in England in the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Page 12 Henry D.. (2011) Naturally Fast Food, New York City, The Rosen Publishing Group Mooney G. (2012) Justice and Social Policy in Scotland, London, Page 71 Boobier W. (2012) Nutrition for children, , New York City, Springer Scott G. (2005) Exploring Social Policy in the 'new' Scotland, Page 103 Read More

 

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