Westminster life: Feeding the talent of the next generation

More families across Peterborough will start to feel real change to their mornings, and their household budgets, as free breakfast clubs are rolled out to ten more local primary schools from September, writes city MP Andrew Pakes.

I recently visited Highlees Primary School, one of the first Peterborough schools to join the Best Start programme in April, to see their government‑funded breakfast club in action and hear directly from pupils and staff about the difference it makes. From September, eleven schools in Peterborough will have free breakfast clubs at the start of the new term, as part of a national expansion to 1,400 more schools and around 680,000 children across England.

For parents, these clubs mean a healthy breakfast and at least half an hour of free childcare at the start of the day, saving up to £450 per child each year and easing the morning juggle. These are exactly the benefits the Labour Government promised: free breakfast clubs in every primary school, supporting parents and making sure our children have hungry minds, not hungry bellies.

I have been working hard in Westminster and with ministers to make sure Peterborough was at the front of the queue for this support, and I am proud that our city is now one of the area’s leading the rollout. This expansion builds on Labour’s wider Plan for Change, including extended free school meals for households on Universal Credit and cheaper school uniforms, to put money back into parents’ pockets at a time when the cost of living is still biting. Taken together, heading back to school under Labour will be almost £1,000 cheaper for many families, once free breakfasts, extended free school meals and new limits on expensive branded uniform are all in place.

On that last point, I’ve also spent some time recently at the Root and Rise Community Hub in Queensgate, where the Second Chance School Uniform Shop is now firmly established. The project allows families to donate, swap or simply take good-quality school uniform, PE kit and coats, all free of charge, ensuring that no child has to miss out or feel different at the school gates because of what they are wearing. Standing with volunteers and local campaigners there, I saw first-hand how community action and a bit of imagination can stretch budgets further and cut waste, with pre-loved blazers, jumpers and shirts ready to be given a second life. They will be having another big day on July 31st next to Peterborough town hall, so if you have uniforms that your children have grown out of and you’d like to swap them for one that fits, please do stop by.

As your MP, my priority is to make sure national decisions translate into real help for families here in Peterborough, whether that is a free breakfast at Highlees, a new uniform from Root and Rise, or the wider reforms to childcare and school support now coming through Parliament. Step by step, we are breaking down the barriers that hold children back and giving every young person in our city the best possible start in life, whatever their background.