The small matter of a General Election took place on the 4^th July 2024, which resulted in a 14-year Conservative rule coming to an end, and the Labour Party taking office. Beth Bradshaw ANutr., Food Active Policy and Advocacy Manager, explores what a new government could mean for improving children’s access to healthy and nutritious food.

Early signals are promising

The Labour Party made bold promises as part of their election manifesto, including pledging to create ‘the healthiest generation of children ever’ and introducing a raft of measures including rolling out free breakfast clubs for all primary school children, preventing fast food outlets opening near schools and ending the sale of energy drinks to children.¹

However, as the saying goes, actions speak louder than words (or manifestos). Whilst the new government have only been in office since 5th July and summer recess is currently taking place, there are early signs that they mean business.

The 2024 King’s Speech was held on 17th July and opened the first session of the new parliament since the general election. The speech and accompanying memorandum included 40 bills, including a reference to legislate to restrict advertising of less healthy food and drink to children on TV and online, along with the sales restriction of high-caffeine energy drinks to children.² Whilst legislation takes time to implement and there may be several obstacles to overcome along the way, the fact both were referenced in the speech is a promising sign that work is already underway to make them happen. 

Elsewhere, other promising updates include a consultation on national planning policies to place greater recognition of the role planning can play in promoting healthier weight, the formation of a new Health Mission Board and reinforcing the importance of prevention more generally.

Question marks remain for some policy areas

The new government have cited tackling health inequalities as a key aim, yet there are a number of missed opportunities to maximise the impact of existing policies, such as the Healthy Start Scheme, Free School Meals and the Holiday Activities and Food Programme.

The cost of living remains a huge burden on household income, and the Food Foundation’s Food Insecurity Tracker revealed that in June 2024, 7.2 million adults and 2.7 million children experienced food insecurity. Furthermore, households with children in the poorest fifth of the population would have to spend 70% of their disposable income on food to afford the government-recommended healthy diet.³

The Healthy Start scheme is available in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to help those receiving certain income-related benefits who are more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under four to buy healthy food and milk, as well as offering free vitamins containing folic acid, vitamin A and vitamin C for children. The scheme is widely regarded as a nutritional safety net, yet there are much-needed improvements to maximise the benefits it can bring.⁴ For example, whilst the previous government increased the value of Healthy Start from £3.15 to £4.25 in April 2021, the value of the prepaid cards hasn’t increased to match the rising cost of food. The price of staple items such as milk and tomatoes for example, has risen from between 21-47% since prices were set in April 2021.⁵

Furthermore, Free School Meals offer children from low-income households a free lunch at school every day, and this also entitles them to a free healthy lunch and lots of fun activities through the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, which has been delivered in each local authority in England since 2021. However, the current eligibility threshold for Free School Meals is just £7400 annual household income (after tax, not including benefits), benefiting 1.9 million pupils. This threshold is simply too low and results in a staggering 900,000 children living in poverty in England missing out.⁶ Given the ongoing pressures on household budgets, the government should urgently consider expanding this threshold, this should be to all families in receipt of Universal Credit, which would benefit over 1.4 million children.⁷ The importance of a nutritious and healthy lunch for school children cannot be underestimated – from promoting good health, to improved academic performance.

Looking forward

There is undoubtedly room for optimism at these early stages. However, as the summer holidays come to a close and parliament returns from summer recess, I will be keeping a watchful (and hopeful) eye that the new government hit the ground running, prioritise child health and turn the tide on the rising levels of diet-related disease. Children’s health cannot wait!

Beth Molly Bradshaw, ANutr
Food Active Policy and Advocacy Manager, Health Equalities Group 

Beth is a Policy and Advocacy Manager and Registered Associate Nutritionist,
with a passion for the wider determinants of health and campaigning
for an environment that is more conducive to healthy lifestyles and behaviours.
Beth has worked at Food Active, a healthy weight charity since 2017 and volunteered
for a further 18 months. Beth has an undergraduate and master’s degree
in food, nutrition and public health.

 Twitter: @BMBradshaw95
LinkedIn: @BethBradshaw1995
Email: [email protected]

References

1. The Labour Party (2024) Change. The Labour Party Manifesto 2024 [online] Available at: https://labour.org.uk/change/
2. Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street and His Majesty King Charles III (2024) The Kings Speech 2024 [online] available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-kings-speech-2024
3. The Food Foundation (2024) Food Insecurity Tracker: Round 16 [online] Available at: https://foodfoundation.org.uk/initiatives/food-insecurity-tracking#tabs/Round-15
4. Local Government Association (2023) Healthy Start needs a fresh start [online] Available at: https://www.local.gov.uk/topics/social-care-health-and-integration/healthy-start-needs-fresh-start#:~:text=What%20is%20Healthy%20Start%3F,diet%20for%20low%2Dincome%20families.
5. Office for National Statistics (2022) Tracking the price of the lowest-cost grocery items, UK, experimental analysis: April 2021 to April 2022 [online] Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/trackingthelowestcostgroceryitemsukexperimentalanalysis/april2021toapril2022
6. Child Poverty Action Group (2023) Free school meals: third of kids in poverty miss out [online] Available at: https://cpag.org.uk/news/free-school-meals-third-kids-poverty-miss-out
7. The Food Foundation (2022) The superpowers of free school meals: evidence pack [online] available at: https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/superpowers-free-school-meals-evidence-pack