THE Press asked leading York councillors to look ahead to 2024. Here Bob Webb City of York Council's executive member for children, young people and education, talks about the challenges and things to look forward to.

 

One of my favourite parts of the year is the winter solstice; when the nights stop getting longer and we start that slow journey back towards the light and the warmth of summer.

There are certainly a lot of people in York and its surrounding villages who can’t wait for some warmth and the chance to turn down the thermostat.

In York, the number of children eligible for Free School Meals in primary schools has jumped six per cent in five years, meaning an average of 15 per cent of schoolchildren are entitled to the Government benefit. However, some pockets of York experience this poverty in far greater numbers than others, with some of our communities in the top 20 per cent of most deprived areas nationally. To be eligible for Free School Meals a family must be earning less than £7,400, or just over £600 a month. This is the same whether you live in Bradford or Bedford, Yeovil or York. This means York families are hit harder than a lot of people elsewhere because, quite frankly, it costs a fortune to live here! And recent calculations by the Child Poverty Action Group indicate that two in every five children living in households below the poverty line remain ineligible for free school meals.

Add to that York public services combined being the most poorly funded nationally by the Government. So, on top of living in a high-cost city, services are under more pressure and less able to meet need than they are elsewhere. This explains why we cannot sit idly by and not do something to help address that need. In the short time since May we have set up a pilot project to deliver universal free school lunches in Westfield Primary School for every child, to launch in January.

The school’s commitment to welcoming and embracing this initiative and supporting its local community has been great to see. It’s something I’m incredibly grateful for. Alongside this lunch offer we’ll see universal free school breakfasts for all pupils launched at Burton Green Primary School early next year. This school similarly supports some of our most vulnerable children and delivers fantastically for the community of Clifton. By running these projects alongside each other throughout 2024, we’ll compare what will deliver the best support, helping ensure our children are well-equipped to learn and flourish at school. What happens beyond these two schools depends on charitable donations and York has a brilliant history of philanthropic giving, echoing back to the Rowntrees. I’m so excited by what the city can achieve through partnership working between schools, donors and the wider community in the near future.

Looking forward to 2024, we’ll have big challenges to tackle, including managing huge pressures on Children’s Services budgets. Within this is an increasing demand for special educational needs and disability (SEND) support, set against a national funding allocation that in no way meets that demand. We must make decisions that ensure proper provision is made for every child and young person, which isn’t easy. In times like these we can achieve a lot pulling together. Naturally I’m hoping for a change of Government nationally, but locally there is still much we can do. I

ask anyone able to support initiatives like York Hungry Minds to please do so, however much or little they can give: https://www.tworidingscf.org.uk/york-hungry-minds/