School meals across Nottinghamshire to rise by £1.05 per week

Paid-for schools meals across Nottinghamshire will go up by 21p per meal — or £1.05 a week — from April.

Nottinghamshire County Council’s Cabinet met on February 6 and discussed the current state of its Catering and Facilities Management Service, which provides school meals across the county.

It approved a 21p increase in the cost of paid-for school meals which equates to £1.05 per week per child, going from £2.95 to £3.16.

Inflation in food prices and national insurance contributions as a result of the Chancellor’s budget in October 2024, were partly blamed for the increase.

National Insurance contribution increases alone are adding more than £1 million in costs to the council in the form of the service’s overall costs, councillors were told. More than 1,000 people work in the department.

Marketplace competition and other commercial factors have mean that the service is “unable to currently recover all its costs through price increases” with the council predicted to give £2.5 million as a subsidy in the current financial year.

It is predicted the council would have to subsidise the catering service by around £4.8 million in the 2025-26 financial year if prices stay the same.

Scott Carlton, cabinet member for communities and public health, introducing the report said that the proposed price increases to the service “still do carry some subsidies moving forward”.

The rise will only affect children and families who pay for school meals, those who receive support for the full cost will not be affected.

Speaking in support of the price increase, Ben Bradley said: “It’s easy to say these services are a given in terms of what we offer, particularly to schools, but they’re not.

“There’s plenty of councils around the country who are having to withdraw from these services altogether.”

Jonathan Wheeler said: “As a council we’ve put a huge amount of money into the service — £2.5 million subsidy this year alone shows the commitment from the council.

“But at the same time the service has to be sustained long term.”

Council leader Sam Smith added that the authority was not taking the “easy option” for the service.

He said: “We haven’t taken the easy option which would have been to pull the service, we are doing all we can to keeping costs as low as possible and keeping the quality of meals very high.”

Of the 5,284,582 school meals predicted for 2025-26, 37% are Universal Infant Free School meals, 26% are free school meals and 37% are paid school meals.

Universal Infant Free School Meals will be paid for by the government at a price of £2.58.

The council is also considering outsourcing the service to a private provider or another council to save money. Discussion of potential providers and contracts was held behind closed doors, with the press and public excluded on the grounds the talks are commercially sensitive and publicising them could affect the final cost.

According to council papers, any new partnership for the service can start in Spring 2025 to become fully operational by September 1, 2025.