As the Government considers its future policy on school breakfast provision, Pro Bono Economics, in partnership with Magic Breakfast and Heinz, has conducted an analysis of the cost-effectiveness of the Magic Breakfast model of free school breakfast provision.
School breakfast provision, targeted at schools with a high proportion of disadvantaged children, is intended to tackle classroom hunger and drive-up academic performance by improving children’s energy, concentration, behaviour and overall readiness to learn.
This research looks at long-term economic benefits, drawing on established literature to examine what these academic impacts mean for reduced costs incurred for special educational needs, truancy and exclusions as well as improvements in earnings from employment up to the age of 60.
Key findings:
This study adds to the growing evidence that the provision of food at school is a cost-effective way of improving academic attainment by demonstrating that the potential long-run benefits are likely to significantly out-weigh the short-term costs. As such, this strengthens the evidence that interventions such as those provided by Magic Breakfast represent excellent return on investment for children.
While the broad conclusions remain robust under a wide range of alternative assumptions, it remains subject to a number of important evidence gaps that should be filled over time. In particular, developing further evidence on the extent to which improvements in academic outcomes are sustained over time and the potential scale of additional benefits from exposure to Magic Breakfast’s support over a number of years is key to building a greater level of certainty around economic impacts going forwards.
Thank you to Jon Franklin, Toby Kenward, Jonathan Coller, Tomas Dillon and Nathaniel Greenwold for their work on this project.
[1] ‘Schools with high levels of disadvantage’ in England are defined as schools with at least 50% of pupils in Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) Bands A-F.
[2] ‘Schools with high levels of disadvantage’ in Scotland are defined as schools with at least 55% of pupils in Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quantiles 1-2.