This week MSPs will be returning to Parliament, just as pupils across Scotland returned to classrooms after the summer break last month.
For MSPs, the months ahead will be full of party conferences, policy debates, manifestos and election campaigns. For Scotland’s young people, the months ahead mean something just as important: new knowledge to master, skills to build, and futures to shape.
When Parliament sits for the first day of its new year on Tuesday morning the café will be buzzing with politicians and their teams eating breakfast and fuelling up for the day ahead – can the same be said for school canteens across the country?
The Government’s Bright Start Breakfasts programme, announced earlier this year with £3 million of investment is a welcome step, recognising that morning hunger must be addressed. By helping more children start the day with breakfast, it supports both learning and wellbeing while easing pressures on families. Bright Start Breakfasts is exactly that, a bright start. In this new parliamentary year, the Scottish Parliament can go ever further. The next Scottish Budget – just three months away – provides an opportunity for the Government to deliver on the promise of a universal free school breakfast programme for every primary and ASN pupil.
Just as students will spend this term laying the groundwork for life beyond the classroom, MSPs too will spend this term laying the groundwork for Scotland’s future. Conference season, manifesto drafting, and campaigning all provide a chance to set out ambitions before Scotland heads to the polls. Our ask is simple, make ending classroom hunger a part of that vision. Public appetite is strong, with 92% of Scottish adults supporting universal breakfast provision, and our Scottish partner schools back it too:
94% support extending breakfast to secondary pupils.
93% support flexible models beyond breakfast clubs, like classroom provision.
92% support including nurseries.
90% support ASN inclusion.
From Dundee to Dumfries, every child deserves the same fair start to the school day. Scotland’s young people are expected to learn, grow, and reach their potential. We should expect the same of our Parliament. In the months ahead, as MSPs draft manifestos, engage at conferences and begin their election campaigns, we urge them to learn from the evidence, and work to give Scotland’s children and young people the nourishment they need to succeed.
