Warrington School Meals: £500,000 Council Subsidy Set to Go

Warrington Borough Council plans to stop putting its own money into school meals. A £500,000 saving on the service is listed in the savings plan Cabinet approved on 9 September. The council’s school meals service cooks for every primary and special school in the borough.

The line is short. Reference Ph2_6, “Review School Meals Provision”, sits in the children’s services section of the council’s own savings appendix. It reads:

“There is a 0-base budget for School Meals. There is a need to ensure schools can continue to offer a school meal service which meets national guidelines.”

That appendix is Appendix 2 of the Medium Term Financial Plan update, published with the Scrutiny Committee papers for 7 September.

When the money goes

The saving is phased over two years. Nothing comes out this financial year.

The appendix lists the staffing impact as zero posts. Its figures are in thousands of pounds, so the “500” in the total column is £500,000.

Who decides, and whether anyone is asked

The council split its savings into two lists. Appendix 1 holds the handful of proposals that go to public consultation. Appendix 2 holds the rest, which are “delegated to the Chief Executive” to carry out, in consultation with the finance director, the monitoring officer and the relevant service director.

School meals is on the second list. The main report’s Appendix A shows no children’s services saving going to public consultation at all. Every children’s line, worth £1.877m in total, is down as “Delegated Authority”.

The same document sets children’s services nine outcomes for the period. The last is to “agree outcome on how to progress School Meals service in most effective way”. In other words, the saving is fixed but the way of making it is not.

The plan went through these steps:

• 7 September: Scrutiny Committee examined the proposals.
• 9 September: Cabinet approved the plan.
• 21 September: Full Council endorsed it, according to the council’s own announcement.

Our earlier report on the £51.2m savings plan covers the consulted items, including the car park charges.

Outsourcing was raised in July

The question of who runs school meals has come up before. At Scrutiny Committee on 29 July, “a question was raised regarding the outsourcing of the school meals service”. Councillors were told “a response would be provided through the relevant service officer”. That is from the minutes of the 29 July meeting, agreed at the 7 September meeting. The minutes do not record the answer.

The savings papers do not say the service will be outsourced. They do not say prices will rise either. Those are the obvious ways a service with no council budget could balance its books, but neither is in the record yet.

What a meal costs now

The council’s school meals page sets out today’s terms:

• meals are £3.20 a day
• every child in reception, year 1 and year 2 gets a free lunch
• the service provides meals to all Warrington primary and special schools

The page names primary and special schools only, so this is mainly a question for primary school families.

What it means for you

• Nothing changes this school year. The first £125,000 comes out in 2027/28, which starts in April 2027.
• Infant meals stay free. Free lunches for reception, year 1 and year 2 are a national entitlement, not a council subsidy.
• More families now qualify for free meals. From September 2026, every household in England on Universal Credit can claim free school meals, under the government’s expansion announced in June 2025. If you are on Universal Credit and pay for lunches, check whether you can stop.
• Watch for a price letter. If the £3.20 price changes, schools would tell parents in advance. We will report any new price as soon as it is published.
• Ask your councillor. This saving is a delegated decision, so there is no consultation to respond to. Your ward councillor can ask how the service will be run.

For term and holiday dates, see our Warrington school term dates.