Ipsos appointed to lead independent evaluation of England's free breakfast clubs
Ipsos has been appointed by the Department for Education to lead the independent national evaluation of the Free Breakfast Clubs programme in primary schools across England. Ipsos leads the evaluation with its partners UCL, Ecorys, the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) and Prof Greta Defeyter (Northumbria University).
The programme is a central part of the government's plan to break the link between a child's background and their chances in life. It gives every child in participating primary schools a free, healthy breakfast and a calm start to the school day. It also offers families 30 minutes of free childcare before school. The aims are to help children arrive ready to learn, ease pressure on family budgets, strengthen family food security, and support parents to work.
The evaluation will run over the next three years and will build robust evidence on the difference the programme makes as it expands towards every state-funded school with primary-aged children in England.
The evaluation will look at how free breakfast clubs affect pupils, families, and schools. For pupils, it will examine attendance, punctuality, behaviour, wellbeing, and attainment. For families, it will consider food security, household costs, and the difference that free early childcare makes to parents' ability to work. The evaluation will also explore how schools deliver the programme with a particular focus on inclusion and accessibility for all pupils. We will speak with school staff, parents and pupils to understand the experiences of all involved, what is working well and what can be improved as the programme scales.
The work will run alongside the programme's rollout, with findings shared as the evaluation progresses to inform delivery and policy decisions.
Ipsos, BIT and Prof Defeyter bring direct experience of this programme, as they are currently delivering research on the free breakfast clubs Early Adopters Scheme for the Department. This gives the team an established understanding of the programme and its delivery from the outset.
