nicola sturgeon press conference june 16th; scotland: edinburgh: int nicola sturgeon msp press conference opening statement sot part 3 of 3. but for... - {{relatedsearchurl(carousel.phrase)}} video stock e b–roll
{"Image ImageDescription": "Coronavirus: Nicola Sturgeon press conference June 16th; SCOTLAND: Edinburgh:\r\nINT\r\nNicola Sturgeon MSP (First Minister) press conference opening statement SOT part 3 of 3.\r\n\r\nBut for some people ? especially, but not exclusively, people who are currently furloughed on a relatively low income, or have been made unemployed - it does makes sense to develop new skills at this time. The learning accounts will offer a further way of supporting people who want to do that, as we seek to emerge from lockdown.\r\n\r\nThe other issue I want to talk about today is free school meals, and emergency food support more generally.\r\n\r\nFree school meals are currently being made available to around 175,000 children across Scotland - either within local authority and early years premises which are still open, or more often through direct cash payments, supermarket vouchers, or the direct supply of food or meals. I can confirm that this provision will be extended throughout the summer holiday period.\r\n\r\nWe know families are under considerable financial pressure just now and free school meals are a vital help to many but they are also important to the health and well-being of many children.\r\n\r\nSo we will provide 12.6 million in funding for Local Authorities to enable the continuation of free school meals during the period from the end of June to the start of the new term in August. The funding will be allocated in a way that allows councils ? as many of them currently do ? to co-ordinate school meal provision with wider support they may be making available to families.\r\n\r\nIn addition, we are making ?15 million available to councils, to maintain some of that wider support - in particular, the support for food which is currently available for people in severe poverty, people who face other barriers to getting food, and people who are being asked to isolate under the new Test and Protect system\r\n\r\nOur support for those who are shielding - which I should say, comes from a different budget - is...", "Image Copyright": "ITN POOL"}