Information on existing breakfast provision in schools: FOI release

Information requested

What progress has taken place towards mapping free school breakfast provision in Scotland with the local government improvement service. 

Response

We have interpreted ‘mapping free school breakfast provision in Scotland with the local government improvement service’ to refer to the work we undertook in partnership with the Improvement Service and AssistFM at the direction of Scottish Ministers from September 2023. This sought to gather information on existing breakfast provision in schools such as uptake, delivery models used to support provision and associated costs.

Mapping proceeded in two phases, the first of which was a desk exercise to understand approaches to breakfast provision across the 32 Local Authorities – completed in February 2024. The second phase took the form of a survey of all primary and special schools in Scotland which completed in May 2024. The Improvement Service presented the results to the Scottish Government in June 2024, concluding the work.

Approximately 94% of Local Authorities and 85% of primary and specialist schools registered in Scotland engaged with the mapping work. Based on their responses, findings from the mapping work indicate that 48% of all primary and specialist schools in Scotland provide breakfasts via a mixed model of delivery operated by a range of service providers including public, private and third sector.

The findings from the mapping work have been used to inform our policy development regarding breakfast provision, including our recently launched Bright Start Breakfasts fund which will deliver expanded access to breakfast clubs for children in Scotland from August 2025. Throughout the delivery of this fund and as we continue policy development, we will continue to work with partners to strengthen our understanding of existing breakfast provision.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.