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HEALTHY FOOD IN SCHOOLS - TRANSFORMING SCHOOL MEALS
30 March 2005
Education Secretary Ruth Kelly today set down that schools should spend at least 50p per child on food ingredients as she unveiled a £280 million package to transform the quality of school meals.
From September and over the next three years, schools and local education authorities will be supported in transforming school meals with healthy food, prepared fresh on the premises by trained school cooks, which would follow tough minimum nutrition standards underpinned by Ofsted inspection. The following elements will deliver a step change in school meals:• £220 million new funding grants direct to schools and local education authorities to ensure they can transform school meals, including a minimum spend on ingredients of 50p per pupil per day for all primary schools, and 60p per pupil per day for all secondary schools, as well as providing increased training and working hours for school cooks;• £60 million from the Big Lottery Fund and the Department for Education and Skills to enable a new School Food Trust to give independent support and advice to schools and parents to improve the standard of school meals;• tough minimum nutrition standards developed by an expert panel to be rolled out to primary and secondary schools from September 2005, and becoming mandatory from September 2006; the panel has been asked to strongly consider the use of nutrient-based standards and whether any individual foodstuffs should be banned;• proposals to enable parents to work with schools and the School Food Trust to improve the quality of their child’s school meal, with a dedicated ‘toolkit’ for parents to be published in May;• Ofsted to review the quality of school meals as part of regular school inspections from September, and to perform detailed inspections with nutritionists of the nutritional content of school food in a sample of schools in every local education authority.From April, a new vocational qualification will be available for school caterers to help them promote healthy food, and ensure they are high status school cooks who are as integral to the whole-school team as teachers and classroom assistants. The Learning and Skills Council will also work with the School Food Trust to develop a ladder of qualifications to meet the skills needs of all kitchen staff, from the basics of hygiene and nutrition through to more specialist preparation and cooking.New or upgraded school kitchen facilities where fresh produce can be prepared and served will be made a priority through the current school rebuilding and refurbishment programmes. The Government is investing £5.5bn in 2005-06 rising to £6.3bn in 2007-08 to improve secondary school buildings, and at least £1.8 billion to improve primary schools in 2007-08. Ruth Kelly said: “This £280 million package will make a real difference. Every school will now be able to spend a minimum of 50p per pupil on ingredients for school meals. This new investment will transform what is offered to children and teenagers in our schools so that high-quality healthy food is on every child’s plate. “But it is not just about money for ingredients, it is also about ensuring schools have the expertise available. To help schools make the change, the new School Food Trust will give independent support and advice to schools and parents to improve the standard of school meals. “And it is not just about banning what is unhealthy, it is also about promoting what is healthy. Tough minimum nutrition standards coupled with continued work to promote good health to young people in schools will help them understand the importance of eating a balanced diet.”By July the Department for Education & Skills will publish more help for schools and local education authorities in drawing up catering contracts to source healthy school meals’ services and healthy food in vending machines, tuck shops, or breakfast clubs.The Department of Health also launched today the Food in Schools toolkit to support, guide and inspire schools in taking a ‘whole-school’ approach to healthy eating and drinking including vending machines, breakfast clubs and after school cookery clubs. Developed following pilots in over 300 schools, the toolkit will be fully integrated into the Healthy Schools Programme and supports the Healthy Living Blueprint. Health Secretary John Reid said:“We have already made clear we are determined to see fast progress in this whole area, and tackle the problems of children eating junk foods and unhealthy foods with firm measures, which is why I welcome today's announcement on school meals as part of the wider push to improve children's diets. “The introduction of nutrition based standards for healthier school meals will help us deliver our aim in the White Paper to reduce the amount of fat, salt and sugar in our children's food and to increase fruit and vegetables and other essential nutrients.”Editor's Notes
This press notice relates to 'England'
1. This announcement builds on commitments to improve school food and drink outlined in the recently published White Paper Choosing Health: Making Healthier Choices Easier. The White Paper consultation showed a significant demand for improvements to school food, with an emphasis on the "whole school approach" to healthy eating, improving vending and access to water. It also builds on a concerted strategy to improve school meals and children’s health education in recent years: • April 2005: Food in Schools website goes live http://www.foodinschools.org providing schools with a ‘one-stop’ resource for information on school food including school meals and food and nutrition in the curriculum.• August 2004: Healthy Living Blueprint launched to help all schools to take a ‘whole school’ approach to health and nutrition - looking at the environment and organisation of the school as well as the curriculum to promote healthy living among pupils. • 2002: Growing Schools programme launched to encourage 13,000 schools to use ‘outdoor classrooms’ as an integrated part of learning to teach pupils about health issues, food and sustainable development;• 2001: minimum standards for school lunches set, the first for 20 years. 83% of secondary schools are meeting all the nutritional standards for school meals every lunchtime; 82% of schools are providing drinking water at the beginning of service; 91% of schools provided vegetables and/or fruit on most days.• 2001: joint Department for Education & Skills/Department of Health Food in Schools programme launched to promote ‘whole school’ approaches to healthy eating.• 2001: Department of Health’s School Fruit and Vegetable scheme launched, now giving two million pupils aged 4-6 years in 16,000 schools across England a free piece of fruit or vegetable each school day. £77 million has been committed to the programme to 2005/06. • 1999: joint Department for Education & Skills/Department of Health National Healthy School Programme investing £5.7 million each year across all Local Education Authorities to promote all aspects of health to pupils, such as healthy eating and physical activity. 10,000 schools have already reached Healthy School Standard status. 2. The Department for Education and Skills will fund the school meals transformation with £235 million over three years, £220 million in grants to schools and local education authorities, and £15 million to the School Food Trust.3. In addition, the Big Lottery Fund, as part of a strategic programme to promote well being, has decided to allocate up to £45 million to support healthy eating projects and initiatives for children, parents and their wider communities. The Fund will work in partnership with the voluntary sector, including the School Food Trust, the Soil Association and Sustain, local authorities, schools and the Healthy Schools Programme to develop the programme.
Contact Details
Public Enquiries 0870 000 2288, info@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk
Press Notice 2005/0044
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