School kitchens revamp to prepare for free dinners

Every school in Staffordshire will be able to serve infants free school meals from the beginning of next term, the county council said today.

Work will also be carried out across the Black Country.

More than 150 schools in Staffordshire are being given new kitchen serveries or other revamps after the Government said all pupils aged four to seven would get a free school meal from September.

Some schools may need to change or stagger lunch times to cope if they have not done so already.

At Five Ways School in Heath Hayes, Cannock, a new serving hatch has been installed to cope with increased demand.

Business manager Wendy Russell said it was expected that up to 400 youngsters would take up the offer compared with 120 at the moment.

"The new servery has freed up space. We also have extra tables and there are orders being placed for plates and cutlery.

"We already have a staggered lunch time but our early years children might come through a little earlier."

Ben Adams, Staffordshire County Council's education boss, said: "Many larger schools just didn't have the facilities in place to meet the increase in demand when all the youngest children are entitled to a meal.

"Since December we have commissioned our services provider Entrust to inspect more than 180 schools and then carry out the necessary work.

"When you consider the size of Staffordshire and the number of schools involved, it's been an outstanding effort to get this far, this quickly and be in a position to make this commitment."

The Government sent aside £150 million to roll out free school meals to all infant age children. But the policy will cost £1 billion and has reportedly sparked rows between the Tories and Liberal Democrats.

Staffordshire has been handed £2.03m for maintained and church schools.

Work to prepare schools has ranged from installing serveries, refrigeration and new ovens, to making structural alterations to accommodate equipment and moving mains electricity and gas supplies.

Walsall Council has been awarded £590,000 and bosses said they were confident they would be ready in time.

Five primary schools in Wolverhampton are set to benefit from a £300,000 upgrade in school kitchens.

They are Bantock Primary, Christ Church CE Infants, Elston Hall Primary, Manor Primary and Warstones Primary.

Councillor Phil Page, the city's cabinet member for schools, said: "The officers at the council inspect the kitchens at the schools and they put forward which ones need to be improved."