Impact of school breakfast programmes

This project investigated the impact of free breakfast schemes on children’s well-being and academic outcomes in English primary schools.

Why this project is important

School breakfast schemes have the potential to address several pressing policy problems at relatively low cost. They potentially alleviate hunger and thereby improve children’s mental health, behaviour, educational attainment and school attendance, all of which declined following the covid-19 pandemic. Breakfast schemes delivered as before-school clubs potentially also remove a barrier to parents of young children from participating in the labour market or increasing their working hours.

In 2024 the government announced its intention to expand breakfast provision to all pupils in primary school. So, this study sought to provide up to date evidence on the efficacy of breakfast provision and how this varies across different provision models and children from different backgrounds. It extended the evidence by assessing impacts over a longer and more recent time-period than prior research. It covered a broader range of outcomes, including emotional and behavioural difficulties, persistent absenteeism, and parents’ financial situation and food expenditure. In addition, it newly distinguished impacts by mode of provision (e.g. grab n’ go vs classroom provision vs a before-school club).

In this way it aimed to help determine optimal ways for breakfast provision to be implemented and indicate whether supplementary policies might be required to shift some of the targeted outcomes.

What it involved

The research team used data from three major providers of breakfast provision in England. This was linked to data from:

• the National Pupil Database (absences, punctuality, attainment, and child development);
• the National Child Measurement Programme (body weight); and
• Understanding Society (children’s social emotional behaviour, mental health, and parent’s financial situation and labour market participation).

To analyse the impact of breakfast programmes on key outcomes, analysis exploited the roll-out of free school breakfast schemes across schools over time, comparing the outcomes of children within schools who were early and late adopters of free breakfast provision.

What it found

1) Take-up of breakfast schemes is highest for Classroom provision (84%) and lowest for Breakfast Clubs (28%), with Grab and Go and Mixed provision in between.
2) Breakfast schemes very slightly reduced absence rates (0.13 days per child per year) and persistent absence (one child in 240 no longer persistently absent).
3) Breakfast schemes reduced children’s emotional and behavioural difficulties. This benefit was concentrated entirely in boys, and driven by reduced hyperactivity and conduct problems.
4) Breakfast schemes very slightly improved teacher-assessed attainment at Reception (age 5), measured by the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. They resulted in approximately 1 week of additional progress in KS2 (age 11) Reading and Maths tests.
5) Breakfast schemes raised obesity prevalence by 0.25 and 0.36 percentage points among Reception and Year 6 children respectively. Detrimental effects are mainly driven by Classroom provision. Breakfast Clubs, Mixed and Grab-and-Go showed no significant increases in obesity prevalence; although Breakfast Clubs did raise BMI among Year 6 children.

What are the implications

1) Breakfast schemes do not transform children’s educational attainment, but can form part of a wider policy toolkit for raising attainment among disadvantaged pupils.
2) Breakfast provision may be a useful complement to dedicated behavioural interventions in schools, which are expensive and hard to scale.
3) Prioritising the rollout of breakfast schemes to more deprived schools is well-founded on educational and mental health grounds. Less is known about what the impacts will be in less disadvantaged schools.
4) Adverse effects on bodyweight are a concern. Classroom provision, the mode with the highest take-up, produces the largest increase in obesity. This is consistent with breakfast becoming a social default even for children who have already eaten at home. Delivery models should target genuine nutritional need without promoting over-consumption.
5) Evidence on modes of breakfast provision shows that Mixed provision, which offers children a choice of how to access breakfast, consistently outperforms a single delivery mode across attainment, development, and bodyweight outcomes. The national Breakfast Club programme should consider whether it can accommodate flexible delivery within schools, rather than prescribing a uniform before school format.