Schools paying for cookers and beds for families living in poverty, leaders say

Schools are paying for cookers, beds and food for families living in poverty, school leaders have said.

More pupils are missing out on extracurricular activities and school trips as families cannot afford them, while others are arriving in class cold, it was suggested.

Speaking to reporters at the National Education Union (NEU) annual conference in Harrogate, school leaders described how school staff are stepping in to support pupils and their families.

Chris Dutton, who represents school leaders who are NEU members, said: “Lots of school budget is spent on things that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with school budget.

“So providing basic equipment for families, providing things like cookers, providing microwaves.”

Mr Dutton, chairman of the NEU’s national leadership council, added: “Families are in poverty and they can’t afford to pay for some of these things themselves, so sometimes schools have to step in and we provide basic equipment, basic food.”

He said some schools are providing “very basic equipment” – such as duvets and pillows – as well as beds “because they just aren’t there in the family home”.

Mr Dutton, who is a deputy headteacher of a secondary school in the south west of England, added: “Some schools are having to make that difficult decision and actually decide what’s right to do.

“And actually it shouldn’t be coming out of school budget, but we shouldn’t be having children living in these circumstances.”

Michael Allen, deputy headteacher of a primary school in Wiltshire, said some Reception pupils are not toilet trained, or they are anxious, and schools are paying for clothes for them to change into during the day.

He said: “Schools are now being asked to do so much more for the children that come in.”

Mr Allen added: “We know children are cold when they come to school.

“We know that we can give out some payments to pay for heating, but we try and have to plan that ahead.

“It’s more worries for teachers and leaders where we want to be focusing on teaching, inspiring people, and we are really sometimes mired in things that we feel that maybe others should have picked up before they get to school.”

Aimee Turner, deputy headteacher of a primary school, said: “I think for our school it’s the unseen poverty.

“Children in our school don’t go to after-school clubs.

“That wider curriculum offer is not available for our children, and so many local schools are then having to withdraw all their beautiful after-school clubs that they used to offer, things like the sports and the arts clubs, because school funding has been reduced massively.”

She added: “Parents can’t afford to send them to any sort of curriculum enhancement.

“But also schools can’t afford to buy them in on behalf of those families now.”

Speaking to reporters at the conference, Mr Dutton added: “We’ve noticed a huge rise in parents who can’t afford school trips.”

“The poverty goes beyond the children on free school meals,” he said.

A poll of more than 11,600 NEU teacher members in English state schools suggests that nearly two in five (39%) had seen physical underdevelopment among their pupils as a result of poverty.

The majority of respondents reported having seen children come to school in unclean, damaged or ill-fitting clothes or shoes (65%) and showing signs of hunger during the school day (59%) due to poverty.

Last month, data published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) showed there were 4.45 million children estimated to be in households in relative low income, after housing costs, in the year to March 2024.

The latest figure is the highest since comparable records for the UK began in 2002/03.

The Government’s child poverty taskforce is due to present a strategy in spring.

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, said: “It is profoundly worrying that in one of the richest countries in the world, we continue to expect schools to plug the gap.

“The reality is that child poverty is rising, not falling.

“Instead of reducing it, the Government is making the lives of 4.5 million young people and their parents more difficult.

“Whether it’s the two-child limit or welfare cuts, the end result is the same: more suffering for the most vulnerable in society.

“A Government calling for ‘high and rising standards’ cannot at the same time stand idly by in the face of high and rising rates of child poverty.

“The Government must take action.”

A Department for Education (DfE) spokeswoman said: “No child should be living in poverty, which is why we have already taken wide-ranging action to break the unfair link between background and opportunity, led by our cross-government child poverty taskforce.

“We have also tripled investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million – with delivery of free meals and childcare to begin in up to 750 schools from this month – and increased pupil premium to over £3 billion to provide additional support for those children that need it most.”