- More parents in Hexham constituency could save up to £450 and 95 hours per year as Labour’s free breakfast club set to target less well-off areas
- Applications opened in November for the first 500 to start in April 2026, with 5 in Hexham encouraged to apply
- 1,500 more schools to join the programme in September 2026, 2 in Hexham
Half a million more children nationwide will benefit from Best Start free breakfast clubs from April and I am now calling on local schools to sign up.
Applications opened in November for the next wave of 500 schools to benefit from the programme, as Labour invests £80 million in the right places to give every child the best start in life – recognising that a healthy, well-educated population is essential for a thriving economy.
The move is the latest step in Labour’s plan for national renewal, offering help immediately to working parents juggling childcare by giving them back up to 95 hours of time – over two and a half working weeks each year. That’s money back in pockets and time back in busy lives, helping families get by whilst ensuring children are ready to learn and succeed.
By prioritising schools with the highest proportion of pupils on free school meals the rollout ensures the real-life impact of free breakfast clubs goes first to where it is most needed.
As a crucial part of the Plan for Change, a further 1,500 schools will start in September 2026, with applications due to open in January, altogether helping to extend benefits to over 200,000 more underprivileged children in a little over a year of the programme launching.
Speaking with families across our constituency, I’ve heard time and again how transformative free breakfast clubs can be. They give parents vital time to get to work in the mornings, ease pressure on household budgets and give children the best possible start to their day. Earlier this year I visited the breakfast club at Mickley First School and saw for myself how much the children were benefiting from receiving a healthy breakfast and having time to have fun with their peers before lessons begin. It is fantastic to see this government’s commitment to expanding the breakfast club programme and I will be working closely with schools across our constituency, backing their applications so they can offer these clubs from next year.
Labour has increased the per child funding rate has for mainstream schools, making good on its commitment to roll out clubs with a variety of healthy meals.
Schools will also receive a guaranteed £25 a day to cover staffing and admin so every type of school can easily deliver a breakfast club. For an average school with 50% take up, the total funding package has increased by 28%.
This builds on consistent, tough choices to prioritise investment into to help families with the cost of living such as expanding free school meals to every family on Universal Credit, lifting the two-child benefit cap and introducing 30 hours free childcare to working parents, saving them up to £7,500 per year.
This follows the latest parent polling showing that more than one in three parents (38%) find it difficult to give their child a healthy breakfast before school, with fussy eating (36%) and time (28%) being the main barriers.