Update on the breakfast clubs early adopter scheme

As announced by the Chancellor in September, Department for Education (DfE) will be introducing free breakfast clubs in up to 750 early adopter schools from April 2025 as part of a test and learn phase in advance of national roll out.

Early adopters will offer all primary-aged children on roll at their school, no matter their circumstances, access to a free, universal breakfast club lasting at least 30 minutes that involves food, providing children with a supportive start to the day and helping families to have more choice about work. Parents and carers can choose to take up the offer although we encourage schools to promote the offer and drive take up, particularly within disadvantaged groups.

The National Wraparound Childcare Programme has built capacity within the childcare system. So far the programme has seen a total investment of £180m to support the delivery of more childcare places, before and after school, and overall we anticipate delivering up to 200,000 new ‘full’ places (i.e. 8am-6pm), available to parents in over 50% of all primary schools.

Application process

State funded schools with primary age children who wish to apply to be a breakfast club early adopter need to complete the expression of interest form through the DfE login.

Schools will be asked to complete a few short questions about current breakfast club provision and take-up, and there will be no expectation to explain why they wish to apply.

The expression of interest form went live 27th November  and will close on the 20th December 2024.

The DfE are expressly looking to understand how the breakfast club policy is implemented in a range of schools. Interest is welcome from those:

• with an existing breakfast or before-school childcare offer
• without any existing provision
• that already work with, or are considering working with, private, voluntary or independent (PVI) childcare providers, including childminders, to deliver their breakfast clubs
• that may face initial challenges with setting up breakfast club provision (this will help us to understand how best to support schools)

Please note that while trusts may express interest in implementing the programme across multiple schools, each school must submit an individual application, logging in with its own DfE Sign-in. Within the form, there is an option for schools to indicate their intent to participate either individually or as part of a wider rollout across multiple schools within their trust.

The DfE will confirm which schools in the Devon area are participating in the early adopter programme in January. Guidance and support for early adopter schools are being developed in partnership with schools, local authorities, and the wider sector, and will be published in the new year.

Find out more

Further information about the early adopters scheme is available here: Breakfast clubs early adopters scheme – GOV.UK

The Department is also hosting a webinar on the 5th of December offering schools the chance to learn more about the programme and the application process. Schools can register to attend the webinar.

For PVI settings who are interested in running Breakfast clubs on school site, please talk to your schools about the possibility of working together.