Helping schools serve quality meals to pupils

What does the recent Children and Families Bill mean for schools? The Children’s Food Trust has enthusiastically welcomed the new government legislation which means that from September, primary school head teachers will have a legal duty to provide free lunches for children at their school.
   
The Children’s Food Trust has been supporting educational and children’s settings to provide better meals since the organisation was set up in 2007 and is the ideal choice to help schools prepare for the implementation of universal infant free school meals in September.
   
Chief Executive Linda Cregan, said: “The Children’s Food Trust has always believed all children have the right to have a nutritious balanced diet and putting both the funding and legislation in place is a huge step towards this. Making sure our infant school children have access to healthy school meals is vital for them to stand the best chance of reaching their full potential and growing-up healthy.”
   
For many schools providing free school meals for all infant children from September will be a huge challenge but the Children’s Food Trust’s new advice service is set to provide them with the support they need to develop and improve their catering facilities.

The options available
The Trust has already worked with local authorities in Newham, Durham and Wolverhampton to implement the universal free school meal pilot, but now its hugely experienced advisors are ready to help make free school meals the norm nationwide.
   
All infant and primary schools in England can now access support online or contact the advice line, where they will be provided with support to get ready to deliver free school meals for all infant pupils.

For schools that need extra help, there are a number of options including further telephone advice or face to face visits by specialist professional advisors, and linking up with other schools who have already made successful changes to learn from their good practice.
   
Linda’s advice to school’s embarking on this free school meals journey is: “You need a plan. Bring together a project team including your business manager, a governor, your school cook, local authority, caterer – if you have one – and at least one parent.
   
“Communicate often, and well, with your parents and don’t forget to consult your pupils – their views can be very helpful.
   
“Read and digest the School Food Plan, and use all the resources available through website like ours.”

Preparing for change
Alongside the bill, the government have announced funding in the shape of a £2.30 allocation for each pupil per meal, £150 million capital funding and transitional funding for one year of £22.5 million to support small schools.
   
Amongst other things, schools will have to think about changes to staffing, how they can forecast the amount of meals they’ll need to provide and how to cater to special dietary needs. Linda said: “A common concern is how schools will manage the increased number of children eating school meals.
   
“A lot of this worry stems from lack of space in the dining room. Our advisors are supporting schools to help them think about ways they could make space, including changing the layout of tables and chairs to make things flow better, making lunchtimes longer or perhaps staggering lunchtimes for different year groups. Every school’s situation is different so our approach is to provide advice that is specific to their circumstances. “One size fits all” doesn’t work here.”
   
For schools that don’t have a kitchen or inadequate kitchen facilities, Linda suggested that: “Schools should contact their local authority to find out what funding is available and if they are able to receive any of the capital fund made available by the Department for Education. Academy trusts have also been able to access funding through the Academies Capital Maintenance Fund and we expect the outcome of those bids to be known soon.
   
“There are lots of options, like siting a “Pod” mobile kitchen on site if there is space, bringing in food from a hub kitchen or as a very last resort offering cold food items that meet the standards for school food.”

Supporting schools
The Children’s Food Trust and LACA (Lead Association for Catering in Education) have teamed up with a range of delivery partners to provide the tailored expert advice to infant schools.
   
Anne Bull, LACA National Chair commented: “The timeline to have everything in place by September may seem daunting to some schools but we know that they are working hard with parents and staff to improve school meals whilst caterers and government are collaborating to improve standards and take up. Our new advice and support service will bring together the best experts and practical advice to help caterers, teachers and schools prepare for this major change.”
   
Despite the obstacles, Linda says that the benefits of schools meals are clear to all to see.
   
Linda said: “There’s no doubt that this is going to be a challenge for some schools. But we also know the changes are possible with the right help and support.
   
“We know that when all children are offered good quality school meals for free, more families opt for these meals because they become the norm. This also has a knock on effect with children not just showing big improvements in their diet and eating habits but also displaying real improvements in their school results.
   
“These benefits are particularly important for those children living in under privileged families: we know many of these children aren’t reaching their full potential at school, and their lunch can be their only proper meal of the day. This legislation will ensure all children in infant schools benefit.”
   
Support is also available to help junior, secondary, academy, free schools, PRUs and schools for pupils with special educational needs that have very low take up, to increase the number of children having school meals.
Run by the Children’s Food Trust with its partner organisations, this support is available to schools in the South East, South West and East of England and for will help just under half of the 2000 eligible state funded schools in England.

Listening to pupils’ needs
The Food for Life Partnership will be working with schools, cooks and caterers across the North of England, the Midlands and London.

The support includes a series of ‘Train The Trainer’ courses which will give local authority or academy trust staff the training, skill and expertise to deliver the Children’s Food Trust’s Small Step Improvement programme’ to eligible schools in their area. In addition junior schools will receive the ‘Food Dudes Dining Experience’ and secondary schools will receive training in developing a bespoke marketing programme from Elygra Marketing Services. This will help schools to ensure their menus and dining facilities appeal to the young people using them.
   
The Children’s Food Trust’s chairman and professional chef, Rob Rees MBE, says: “It’s a fantastic time to be involved with school food.

“Through my work at the Children’s Food Trust I’ve seen the problems schools have every day to deliver high quality, nutritious, interesting food to young people. There are so many competing demands on young people’s time at school they often end up eating lunch on the go or at mid-morning breaks and sitting down with friends to eat a healthy meal is often not their priority. There is no doubting that increasing uptake in school dinners is a big ask that no one should underestimate.

“We need to look at how we market our dining experience to children. By involving young people and listening to their views we can create the environment and menu that they want. Just as a commercial restaurant needs to design its whole dining experience to attract its target audience so academies and schools need to do the same. We need to make sure our school meals are an attractive proposition next to all the competition both in and outside school.
   
“For some it will take a shift in mind-set, we need to think of our children as customers and as soon as we do this it suddenly makes more sense what we need to do to increase take up.
   
“By listening to young people academies and schools can gather vital insight such as what the drivers are behind children’s decision making when it comes to school meals. For example we know just as adults like to go out for a coffee or meal to relax or to not only meet friends but build new relationships, so a well delivered school meal gives all the same rewards to children. We also know these factors come above nutrition and refuelling in most young people’s priority list. The food, dining room and overall experience must meet the children’s expectations.”

Further information
www.childrensfoodtrust.org.uk