Recommendation 4

The Department did not do enough to assess how far families had to travel to supermarkets in the scheme and whether coverage was adequate to meet needs. The Department worked with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs to check there was at least one participating retailer in each local authority area. However, given the size of many local authorities, this offered limited assurance about coverage in practice for many families, particularly in rural areas. The Department did not analyse how far parents would need to travel to stores, or how long it would take. At the start of the scheme when six supermarket chains were taking part, almost 2,500 schools (11.2% of all schools) were more than five kilometres from their nearest participating store. This would have meant a long journey for families, and been especially difficult and costly for those reliant on public transport and given the movement restrictions during the early months of the pandemic. Recommendation: In implementing future policies, the Department should ensure it robustly evaluates geographic coverage and likely travelling time for people to access services.