SOARING levels of child poverty have led to nearly four in five school staff helping pupils with dinner money, sparking renewed calls by unions and charities for universal free school meals.

New research, co-ordinated by the Education Anti-Poverty Coalition and released today, also found nearly nine in 10 believed child poverty had worsened in their school over the past two years.

It is part of the first-of-its-kind study into the experiences of head teachers, senior leaders, teachers, governors, teaching support staff, administrators, catering teams and facilities managers.

National Education Union (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede told the Morning Star: “The prevalence of poverty and the impact of the cost-of-living crisis have pushed many families into hardship.

“Schools and their staff are working harder than ever to provide the support they need. No child should be in school too hungry to learn. 

“The government needs to urgently act to support those on the lowest incomes to have an equal experience of education, and reduce the burden on schools. 

“That’s why we are urging government to step up and roll out free school meals to all children, starting with those in primary.

“National government need to rethink what we are prioritising as a nation.”

And Unison head of education Mike Short said: “It’s a damning indictment of this government's failed economic policies that so many children are coming to school too hungry to learn.

“Ministers must act urgently and extend the provision of free school meals to all state schools and increase child support payments for hard-pressed parents.”

The findings from the survey of 1,023 people working in or with schools in England, collected from May to July, have been published in a Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) report.

It comes weeks after separate research by the National Foundation for Educational Research found nearly nine in 10 schools in England are providing uniforms and clothing to some pupils during the cost-of-living crisis.

CPAG’s head of education policy Kate Anstey said: “Child poverty is ripping through our schools, warping the way they work and jeopardising children’s learning and life chances.

“Staff want to focus on children’s development but get side-tracked by dinner money debt.

“As urgent first steps, ministers must widen eligibility for free school meals, boost help with school-related costs and increase child benefit.”

Mairead Waugh, headteacher at St Philip Howard Catholic Primary School in Hertfordshire, said child poverty is the worst she has seen it during her more than two decades in the role.

She said: “I’ve been a head for 25 years, I’ve never seen it as bad as it is at the moment and the numbers are just increasing week-on-week currently.

“In our school it’s not just those that are on free school meals for example, but because that threshold is so low, it’s the next group of families that are just above it, that are also affected.”

The survey found that 79 per cent of staff said they and their colleagues are increasingly having to divert to so-called poverty-mitigation tasks – including referrals to specialist services, sourcing food bank vouchers, hardship grants and children’s clothes.

Among headteachers, the proportion rose to 92 per cent, with 88 per cent of all school staff surveyed saying more families in their school who previously appeared to be managing financially are now struggling to cope amid the cost-of-living crisis.

More than two in three staff said more pupils do not have money for enough food at lunchtime, with 51 per cent saying schools had less capacity to support struggling families and children, with staffing cuts cited as one reason for this, the report added.

Four in five school staff said providing universal free school meals to all school children would have the biggest effect on reducing child poverty in their school.

Almost two-thirds said increasing the amount of financial support low-income and middle-income families with children receive, and 68 per cent said more government help for families with school costs such as uniforms and school trips.

Excluding London, only some children qualify for free school meals in England, including those whose parents are on universal credit with a household income of less than £7,400 a year.

A government spokesperson said it had extended eligibility for free school meals “several times to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century,” including introducing new eligibility criteria for families receiving universal credit.