A LEAKED report has revealed that more than 200 schools in Cumbria face a budget shortfall of up to £6,500 following the government's decision not to renew a subsidy for free school meals.

The report reveals that small schools across the country will now be pushed into the red following the removal of a grant to help small primary provide meals.

All infant schools are given £2.30 per meal but it is argued that schools providing less than 100 meals a day need an additional subsidy to break even.

However, earlier this year the government decided to scrap an additional grant of £2,300 to help smaller schools make ends meet. Without this supplement, 226 schools in Cumbria could face an annual shortfall of £6,500.

Caroline Walker, headteacher of Parkside GGI Academy in Barrow, believes the government need to reassess the scheme.

She said: "They base the funding on the meal price per child but it doesn't cover the cost of the staff we need to cook, clean and wash away.

"They need to look at the options for each of the schools by going back to local authorities and looking at what each school needs."

With some families in Barrow struggling to make ends meet, the scheme to offer free meals is a lifeline for children in schools across the area.

Mrs Walker said: "Three and a half thousand children live below the poverty line and this initiative is having a big impact on families.

"This scheme means they are getting a healthy, hot meal every day and families are not worrying about what they are going to eat and it means they have a bit more money.”

Mrs Sian Taylor, headteacher of Croftlands Infant and Nursery School, said that her school is doing all it can to keep meals free but continuous austerity is taking its toll on small rural schools.

She said: “As far as I'm concerned, it's just another cut in the education system. They (the government) say they are not cutting, but they are.

"It does mean that something will have to go somewhere else to pay for the lost income. We've got to find the money somewhere."

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP and leader of the Liberal Democrat party, Tim Farron accused the government of “overlooking the needs” of small schools in rural areas.

He said: “I am very concerned that schools will have to dig into teaching budgets in order to break even.

“The Conservatives have simply not considered the needs of small rural schools in places like Cumbria – this extra funding is essential as they simply don’t have the same economies of scale as schools elsewhere.

“The government must give our schools the funds needed to provide free school meals without being pushed into the red.”