SCHOOLS and the county council in North Yorkshire carried out extensive work throughout the summer to meet a new requirement to deliver free meals to all children aged seven and under at the start of the school year.

North Yorkshire has the largest number of small primary schools of any authority in the country.

The county council’s school meals service, North Yorkshire County Caterers, has spent more than £660,000 from its own reserves to ensure equipment was in place – including extra cutlery, hot trolleys, ovens and additional refrigeration – to deliver a service which meets the expected demand of the Government’s universal free school meals initiative.

The authority has received £1,269,049 (plus a further £184,466 for Voluntary Aided schools) in capital funding from the Government for 2014/15 to assist with the implementation of the policy.

Extra grants were allocated to cover the cost of free school meals at a flat rate per pupil.

In addition, to recognise the higher costs of small schools, the Department for Education announced transitional funding for smaller primary schools. This is on a sliding scale, so the smallest schools will receive more funding and this will help with some of the additional costs at least in the first year.

The county council has compiled a list of schools which need additional kitchen space, or a new kitchen in the long-term.

The capital funding from the Government will only build about three kitchens and North Yorkshire has 29 schools without a kitchen.

The authority has been undertaking feasibility work to assess the costs and has had to prioritise those schools likely to feel the greatest impact given the limited capital available.

It is likely the county council will have to identify additional capital from its own resources once the full position is clear.

Some schools have made changes to the way they manage school meals, including the number of sittings to accommodate extra numbers; and 26 schools continue to have their meals transported in from another school because they do not have the facility to produce meals on site.

Councillor Arthur Barker, executive member for schools, said: “Our catering service has been undertaking a huge amount of work to make schools fit for purpose to deliver free meals.

“We take pride in delivering healthy school meals to the county’s children.

“As a priority our meals are cooked fresh, from scratch in school kitchens, using locally-sourced produce whenever possible and we must support a policy which delivers free meals to ensure all young, growing children are given good nutrition.

“However, we must wait to see how the policy works out in practice as the year progresses, and what the long-term financial implications will be for our schools.

“But it is likely that we, as a local authority, will have to dig into our own limited capital resources in future to ensure all of our school kitchens can cope in the longer run.”