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School Food Plan Annual Report - Oct 2014
Our Vision is for avourful, fresh food, served by friendly,
fullled cooks in nancially sound school kitchens.
October 2014
School Food Plan
Annual Report
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A letter from
Henry and John
When we were asked two years ago by the Government to lead a review of school food, we agreed on one
condition: that we could publish an actual “plan”, with agreed actions, budgets, timescales and named
people responsible for the plan’s implementation. Over the last year, the Government and many other
organisations - national and local, big and small have done an amazing job delivering the agreed actions in
the School Food Plan.
Two of the most signicant changes proposed by the School Food Plan are now in force. Cooking lessons
are now a compulsory part of the National Curriculum for all 5-14 year olds; and every child in the rst
three years of school is now entitled to a free school lunch.
But excellence does not come through government decree. Providing a free meal doesn’t guarantee that it
will be good, or that the child will eat it. Excellence is created by great school leaders, and by imaginative
school cooks and teachers who are given the right circumstances and the right culture in which to ourish.
Over the last year, we have seen schools, caterers and local authorities perform Herculean tasks to get
ready to deliver free school meals and cooking lessons. In many cases, this means tackling years of under-
investment in good school food. This makes their eorts all the greater, but also even more rewarding.
The hard work doesn’t stop now. There is still much to do to change the diets and food habits of the next
generation – but the start of this school year is a massive step forward. We should celebrate what has been
achieved so far, and look forward together to the future.
This update covers the progress made so far, and lays out ambitions and plans for the coming year.
We have described briey what we think has worked well, and then set out what needs to be done in the
next year. We’ve highlighted some ‘Snippets of Success’ – a small taster of some of the amazing success
stories we’ve heard. Much more detail and information on each action can be found on the School Food
Plan website www.schoolfoodplan.com
We are so grateful to our Expert Panel and all those other fantastic individuals and organisations who
are helping deliver our shared vision. By concentrating on quality, and ensuring that proper evaluation
measures are put in place, we can look forward to another golden year for school food.
Henry and John
Co-authors, School Food Plan
October 2014
School Food Plan Annual Report - Oct 2014
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School Food Plan Annual Report - Oct 2014
Roadshows across the
country to provide more
support for UIFSM
OCT 2014
What Works Well website
launched to support the
sharing of great food cultures
APR 2014
APR 2014
National School Meals Week
Campaign launched to sign up
academies to the new food-based standards
Defra’s (Department for Environment,
Food & Rural Aairs) Plan for Public
Procurement published
JUL 2014
School Food Plan published
Government announce the 17th Action -
Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM)
MPs tuck into a great school lunch served
during National School Meals week
JUL 2013
SEP 2013
NOV 2013
Publish Small Schools pilot
ndings with solutions for
schools without kitchens
NOV 2014
NOV 2014
Food Revolution Day
JUN 2014
JUL 2014
New school food standards
become mandatory
JAN 2015
Launch of UIFSM
SEP 2014
SEP 2014
Change4Life campaign based
around school food
JAN 2014
Cooking and food education becomes
compulsory in the curriculum for KS1-3
SEP 2014
School Food Plan communications
working group established
JAN 2014
London boroughs of Croydon and Lambeth are
announced as the two “agship food boroughs”
New GCSE in cooking and
nutrition opens for consultation
Small Schools pilot launched
MAR 2014
School Food
Milestones
Support service set up to help with
the implementation of UIFSM
MAR 2014
MAR 2014
Government funded support
service for increasing take up and
breakfast club provision
LACA (Lead Association for Catering in Education)
launch new professional standards for the school
catering workforce
JUL 2015
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School Food Plan Annual Report - Oct 2014
What’s worked well:
With the new curriculum published, a wealth of teaching resources and support are now available for schools
to start delivering great cooking and food education. Great programmes, like Chefs Adopt a School, are
working with schools without teaching kitchens. Others, like Garden Organic and School Food Matters, are
helping schools set up great growing enterprises, complete with school farmers’ markets. With a grant from
Defra, these food education initiatives, and the learning experience gained from farm visits, are showcased
on the What Works Well website www.schoolfoodplan.com/www.
Some schools, such as Great Dunmow Primary in Essex and Christ Church Primary in Brixton, have created
an entire food curriculum where Maths, English and Science are also taught through food.
Change4Life, working with the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF), distributed nearly 2 million information
packs about healthy food and nutrition through schools for parents and teachers alike.
What still needs to be done:
Some schools and teachers still need help to gain more condence, and acquire more skills to teach
cooking and food education in a way that will really instil a love of cooking. There are a number of
great organisations creating excellent continuing professional development (CPD) resources for cooking
teachers. For example:
The BNF has developed a range of support materials and training opportunities for schools to help them
plan and implement high quality food, cooking and nutrition teaching;
The Design and Technology Association, along with its partner organisations, launched the School Food
Champions programme for secondary schools;
The Food Teachers Centre provides a platform for secondary school teachers to exchange best practice and
give advice and support to less experienced teachers;
Focus on Food is supporting schools to embed and deliver cooking lessons through its CPD courses for
teachers and cooks.
ACTION:
Put cooking into the curriculum: make cooking and food an
entitlement in Key Stages 1 to 3.
Snippets of Success
“At Christ Church we have developed a broad, enriched curriculum with an emphasis on teaching life skills as well as
developing academic prowess. As part of this we have designed a curriculum with a progression of cross-curricular skills,
relating to food production, cooking and staying healthy. Located in the heart of Brixton, we believe it is particularly
important for children to know where their food comes from as lots do not have their own garden or access to nature. Good
nutrition improves concentration, learning and behavior. We want to prepare children for life, not just secondary school.”
Jakki Rogers,Head teacher, Christ Church Primary School, Brixton
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What still needs to be done:
Over the coming year we will see the last tranche of junior and secondary schools joining the take-up projects
and begin to see the impact of the support they are receiving.
The UIFSM support service will continue through the 2015 school year, helping schools develop their
provision for infants and create a long-term sustainable and successful school meals service.
ACTION:
Kick-start increased take-up of good school food.
What’s worked well:
The Department for Education (DfE) awarded contracts worth over £14m to organisations to work directly
with schools to help them increase the take-up of school meals and support the implementation of UIFSM.
A consortium jointly led by the Children’s Food Trust and LACA has been awarded £9.6m to provide support
for schools and other organisations to be ready to provide UIFSM in September 2014. A further £4.8m has
been awarded to three consortia led by the Food for Life Partnership, the Children’s Food Trust, and the
Design and Technology Association to help 2,000 junior and secondary schools to increase their school meal
take-up by at least 5%.
These brilliant organisations are working directly with schools, academy chains and local authorities across
England to help schools link school meals, food education and food culture together – driving the ‘whole
school approach’. The DfE is evaluating the impact of these projects so that all schools can benet from
seeing what works well to increase take-up.
The UIFSM support service has proved extremely successful. So far, an online ‘toolkit’ has been downloaded
by over 8,000 schools; a dedicated telephone helpline has spoken directly with over 5,000 schools to oer
practical advice and answers; around 500 face to face advisor visits have taken place; and nearly 1,700
schools, caterers and local authorities attended the eighteen regional UIFSM roadshows held in two parts
before and post the summer break. Importantly, every school that has approached the support service has
been helped to nd a solution so that on day one of UIFSM, over 98.5% of schools were able to oer a full hot
lunch.
Snippets of Success
“The expertise and advice we received through the UIFSM support service was invaluable. We
would not be in our current position without this help. The hard work and determination paid
o and seeing all our children eating healthy meals every day made it all worthwhile’
Nicky Gillhespy, School Business Manager,
Cheam Fields Primary School, Sutton
Universal Infant Free School Meals
On 17th September 2013, the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, announced that the Government would fund schools in
England to provide every child in reception, year 1 and year 2 with a healthy meal at lunchtime. Thanks to the enormous
eorts and collaboration across the industry, this key recommendation of the School Food Plan is now in full ow. This is an
incredible milestone towards our vision of a new Golden Age of school food where “avourful, fresh food is served by friendly,
fullled cooks in nancially sound school kitchens”.
Kitchen pod being delivered to
Cheam Fields Primary School
School Food Plan Annual Report - Oct 2014
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What’s worked well:
The new school food standards (www.schoolfoodplan.com/school-food-
standards) are designed to make it easier for school cooks to create imaginative,
exible and nutritious menus. They will be mandatory in all maintained schools,
and new academies and free schools from January 2015.
In trials, the new standards proved extremely popular with school cooks, 90%
of whom said they were easier to implement than the old standards. They also
proved just as eective at delivering the energy and nutrients that growing
children need. In fact, those secondary schools that trialled the new standards
reported an increase in the consumption of vegetables, leading to higher bre,
folate, vitamin A and vitamin C intake.
What still needs to be done:
Change4Life will launch their January 2015 campaign to all primary schools based around the new food
standards and the food curriculum – providing recipes for parents, pupils, and cooks alike.
Taking the lead from academy chains like Reach 2, the School Food Plan oce will be working with
the Department for Education to encourage those academy schools currently exempt, to sign up to the
standards. They can do so at www.schoolfoodplan.com/school-food-standards
“I’m really proud of the work that we have done to develop the food-based standards and put them into
legislation. The input from dieticians and nutritionists, cooks and caterers, teachers and families during
the development and piloting of the standards has been a fabulous example of cooperation in aid of a
common goal – healthy, tasty food for children at school. But it mustn’t stop here and I hope that we will
all continue to learn from each other how to encourage children to choose healthier foods. The best food
provision in the world is no benet if children don’t want to eat it.”
Susan Jebb Professor of Diet and Population Health, Oxford University,
and Project Manager for the School Food Plan’s Standards Panel.
ACTION:
Introduce food-based standards for all schools.
Snippets of Success
One signicant change to the standards was capping fruit juice consumption to a 150ml
portion size (following Department of Health guidelines). Industry has responded quickly,
with new formulations and oers available several months ahead of the January 2015
deadline. It is hoped that these changes will soon be seen in supermarkets too so that a
150ml portion becomes the societal norm.
The Reach 2 Academy Chain signed up all their 32 primary schools to the new standards,
producing School Food Plan aprons for their head teachers to use when helping serve lunch
in the school kitchen.
Reach 2’s School
Food Plan Apron
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School Food Plan Annual Report - Oct 2014
What’s worked well:
Magic Breakfast has been awarded more than £1m by the DfE which, together with match funding, will
be used to set up 184 breakfast clubs in schools where at least 35% of pupils are entitled to free school
meals, and where there is no existing breakfast provision. The goal is for each of these breakfast clubs to be
nancially sustainable by the end of March 2016. While national gures are not currently available, it is clear
that the number of schools providing breakfast clubs continues to grow, providing much needed support to
children who often arrive at school hungry.
Some local authorities, like Blackpool and Derbyshire, are funding breakfasts for all their schools; others
like Lambeth have made political commitments to do so. Local charities and national providers alike are
all working hard to ensure that where breakfast clubs are needed, they are provided. The DfE are evaluating
the impact of its breakfast club funding so that all schools can benet from what works well to set up a
successful, nancially viable, breakfast club.
What still needs to be done:
Magic Breakfast is recruiting schools in earnest so that clubs can be set up as soon as possible - with the aim
that they are self sucient after two years.
The School Food Plan oce will work with Magic Breakfast and others to expand the scope of breakfast clubs
further, looking into the acute issues around holiday hunger.
ACTION:
Set up nancially self-sucient breakfast clubs.
Snippets of Success
With the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) Magic Breakfast has set up
the rst UK trial on the impact of school breakfast on pupils’ attainment. 105 schools are taking part in this project, which
began in September 2014, with the nal report due to be published in spring 2016.
“Our lunchtime supervisors have noticed and told me that the children who now attend breakfast club are rstly more
relaxed and better behaved during the lunch hour (as they are no longer starving and desperate for food) and secondly that
they are making conscious, healthy decisions about what they would like to eat at lunch”.
Fiona O’Malley, Assistant Headteacher, Brunswick Park Primary School.
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What’s worked well:
After a thorough and engaging application process that saw 20
of the 32 London Boroughs apply, the Mayor’s oce awarded
Croydon and Lambeth Food Flagship status in July.
The winning Boroughs had laid out clear plans on how to work
cohesively to transform their food environment, making healthy
food the easy option for all. Importantly, national government,
health, food and education teams have also come on board, along
with the main food retailers and suppliers.
What still needs to be done:
The Food Flagships is an extremely ambitious project, which has the capacity to achieve transformational
change. At a school level, Croydon and Lambeth will receive support to implement excellent School Food
Plans. Both Boroughs have exciting project plans to not only engage with school food but also address the
obesity issue through working with communities, hospitals, businesses, planning and supermarkets.
The Mayor’s Oce, through Rosie Boycott’s London Food Board, will continue to work with local, national
and international partners to commit to practical activities, interventions and regulations to dramatically
shift the food environment. A tall order, but one we must believe in if we are to succeed.
City Hall will host an International conference in spring 2016, bringing together experts from around the
world to share and learn from the best examples of city obesity interventions.
ACTION:
Set up two agship London boroughs to demonstrate the impact of
improving school food on a large scale.
Snippets of Success
Boroughs have fed back how important and energising the application process was, helping forge stronger links within
Borough teams, and increasing engagement and commitment to improving school food. Many have decided to invest in food
related programmes anyway.
“The process of compiling the documentation to support of our Flagship Food Borough application was invaluable. It allowed
us to unite the work of all those Council Services that work tirelessly to ensure high-quality nutritionally balanced food is
available right across the borough. The application process also introduced us to a number of new partners in the eld of food
who share our aims and passion.”
Philip Oldershaw, Marketing and Projects Ocer, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
Rosie Boycott, Chair of the London Food Board, wrote a brilliant piece on the Food Flagships in the Guardian, which sparked
huge debate and comment on-line. Read the article http://tinyurl.com/ltcvuvg.
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Boris Johnson, Rosie Boycott and
Henry Dimbleby at the Lambeth
Food Flagship Launch
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School Food Plan Annual Report - Oct 2014
What’s worked well:
The Government’s announcement on UIFSM was written into law through the Children and Families Act 2014.
Importantly, the wording in the Act will allow Government to roll out the policy to more year groups without the
need for new legislation.
Encouragingly, the Liberal Democrats have agreed to include UIFSM for all primary school children in their
2015 party manifesto.
What still needs to be done:
The DfE is continuing to focus on quality and supporting schools to encourage children to take up their free
meal.
ACTION:
Investigate the case for extending free school meals entitlement.
Snippets of Success
Over 125,000 further education college students from the poorest backgrounds are now entitled to a free school meal, xing
an anomaly that had stood for many years. This is a part of the policy decision that has been lost with the media focus on
universal infant free school meals.
What’s worked well:
In September 2013 Ofsted amended its subsidiary guidance for school inspectors stating that Inspectors were
now required to: “consider the food on oer at the school and atmosphere of the school canteen”.
What still needs to be done:
In September 2014, Ofsted consulted on a new Inspection Framework for Schools. The DfE will be working with
Ofsted to explore how school food will be covered by their new inspection framework. It is hoped and expected
that Ofsted will require Inspectors to consider how a school’s food culture supports children and learning
outcomes.
ACTION:
Ofsted inspectors to consider behaviour and culture in the dining
hall and the way a school promotes healthy lifestyles.
Snippets of Success
“Achievement in literacy and numeracy is high. Skills are reinforced in dierent subjects and topics. For example, in
cookery, pupils were involved in discussion of the recipe, precise measurements and explaining what their initial ideas for
their product might look like in reality”
Great Dunmow Primary School Ofsted Report
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School Food Plan Annual Report - Oct 2014
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What’s worked well:
The National College for Teaching and Leadership developed school food course materials for senior
leadership team training (accounts of practice and case studies), which are now on the What Works Well
website (www.schoolfoodplan.com/www). However, a change of strategy means that National College are in
the process of transferring to a more arms-length licensing model.
Meanwhile, some great CPD training for school leaders and other school food professionals is being provided
by charities such as the Children’s Food Trust, Focus on Food (one of the partners within the Food for Life
Partnership) and others.
What still needs to be done:
We will approach licensed providers for teacher training as well as the national network of Teaching Schools
and the National Leaders of Education to ask them to include food and nutrition in head teacher and senior
leadership team training.
We want all teachers to understand the importance and benets of a good school food culture. So we will pilot
a scheme with initial teacher training providers such as Winchester University’s ‘Quality through Leadership’
programme. This will include food and nutrition information for all new teachers, both at primary and
secondary level.
ACTION:
Train head teachers: include food & nutrition in head teacher training.
Snippets of Success
“It’s well documented how good food and a good food culture can support great learning. That’s why it’s so important that
all teachers, from the newest qualied to the most senior leaders, understand how food plays such a vital part in all our
lives.”
Joy Cater, Vice-Chancellor, University of Winchester
The training courses run by the Food for Life Partnership have helped build sta condence when teaching children
cooking and baking skills. They have a better understanding of how to easily dierentiate cooking requirements for the
dierent ages, making cooking accessible from Nursery up to Year 6. The regular cluster meetings are particularly useful,
supportive and provide opportunities to visit other schools and share best practice”
Jason O’Rourke, Head Teacher, Washingborough Academy, Lincolnshire
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School Food Plan Annual Report - Oct 2014
What’s worked well:
Public Health England (PHE) have been very active partners for the School Food Plan. They have encouraged
Health and Wellbeing Boards at local authority level to promote school food activities as part of their public
health strategies. And through Change4Life, have created brilliant resources for primary schools.
What still needs to be done:
The Change4Life January 2015 campaign will focus on sugar swaps and will include materials to support the
uptake of school lunches and the teaching of cooking in school.
The School Food Plan oce will continue to work with PHE to support the What Works Well Website.
PHE, together with the Children’s Food Trust, will be looking at ‘what works well’ to support caterers to
implement the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services nutrition criteria.
ACTION:
Public Health England will promote policies, which improve
children’s diets in schools.
Snippets of Success
In January 2014, Change4Life sent a School Food Plan Headteacher’s Checklist to every primary school. The Change4Life
Cooking Guide was launched in September 2014 to support teachers with the delivery of the new curriculum.
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‘‘We are pleased to have been part of ensuring the new school food standards are robust and helping
to ensure children and young people meet their nutritional requirements through school food. The
expertise within PHE to support the SFP ‘What Works Well’ programme and the wider agships projects
demonstrates the importance of having experts in public health working in collaboration with wider
stakeholders to improve health and reduce health inequalities for future generations.”
Professor Kevin A. Fenton, National Director, Health and Wellbeing, Public Health England
Change4Life Cooking guide Change4Life checklist for Head Teachers
School Food Plan Annual Report - Oct 2014
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What still needs to be done:
The DfE is nalising its plans to undertake the other monitoring actions in the School Food Plan: these
include work this year to understand how many schools hold food-related quality awards; understanding the
impact of the curriculum on the repertoire of dishes pupils can cook; the morale of the workforce and how
schools are implementing the new standards.
ACTION:
Measure success – set up and monitor ve measures to test whether
the School Food Plan is working.
What’s worked well:
The DfE has commissioned a new school food take-up survey – carried out between May and July 2014 – to
follow the series of similar surveys carried out by the then School Food Trust. The results are expected to
be published later in the Autumn term and will provide a valuable insight into the numbers of pupils eating
school meals and school meal economics. The data will be an important baseline from which to measure the
impact of the School Food Plan.
The Department are evaluating their breakfast club and take-up contracts so that all schools can benet from
the lessons around the idea of what works well.
Snippets of Success
“In preparing for UIFSM many organisations worked closely with schools, caterers and local authorities to understand their
challenges and capitalise on their strengths. As a result, there is now much better information about the provision of school
meals in infant and primary schools across the country. This information is invaluable in targeting help so that every child
wants to leave their packed lunch at home and have a school meal.”
DfE School Food Unit
Pupil Premium
There have been concerns that the introduction of UIFSM would aect a school’s ability to attract the valuable Pupil Premium
for its eligible pupils.
The School Food Plan oce worked closely with those local authorities and schools who have already introduced universal
free school meals to showcase and highlight examples of ways round the problem.
Examples from Brighton and Hove, Southwark and Islington were published in formal DfE guidance which is available at
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-and-pupil-premium-registration-form
We will continue to monitor this challenge closely over the year ahead.
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What still needs to be done:
Responding to feedback from users, website functionality will be improved to make it easier for schools
and caterers to nd inspiration. It will also give clearer signposting to expert help and useful resources. A
recipe hub will also be developed to support schools and caterers deliver quality, tasty meals and imaginative
menus.
The School Food Plan oce is working in close partnership with TES to ensure teachers are supported to
deliver eective cookery lessons and food education, in line with the new curriculum. They will also help us
to reach out to teachers and school leaders looking for inspiration around school food.
ACTION:
Share ‘What Works Well’ on a new website, to enable schools to
learn from each other.
What’s worked well:
Sharing ‘What Works Well’ denes our whole approach. As well as a website which brings together the best
ideas in school food with links to support, it is a way of working to help schools transform their food culture.
The What Works Well website www.schoolfoodplan.com/www has been developed with generous support
from the Caterlink Foundation. The website is a resource for schools and their caterers, covering 5 areas:
Food, the Lunchtime Experience, Learning About Food, Making It Happen and Getting Everyone Involved.
The website contains inspiring case studies, top tips, and practical advice. It is a platform for headteachers,
teachers, governors, cooks, and caterers to share their rst hand stories with each other.
The site also directs users to support available from expert organisations such as the Children’s Food Trust,
the Food for Life Partnership, and the Lead Authority for Catering in Education. The Times Educational
Supplement (TES) and the Guardian Teacher Network have also partnered with What Works Well, so that
schools can access their content and discussion forums.
The second set of regional roadshows were themed around ‘What Works Well’ and the Food for Life
Partnership ‘What Works Well’ visits enable schools to gain practical advice and solutions and develop
support networks.
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Snippets of Success
The What Works Well website brings together the best ideas in school food and food education. www.schoolfoodplan.com/www
School Food Plan Annual Report - Oct 2014
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What still needs to be done:
The focus must be on QUALITY. The School Food Plan oce will continue to publish regular articles in
consumer and trade press, presenting the image of school food according to the School Food Plan’s shared
vision of “avourful, fresh food, served by friendly, fullled cooks in nancially sound school kitchens.”
“The School Food Plan was the next step in the building blocks of putting quality and the image of School
Meals high on the agenda. Henry and John have had the vision to do this and make it work by bringing the
many organisations involved in school food together in a way that has never been seen before.”
Jeanette Orrey MBE, Co-Founder Food for Life Partnership
Further work to improve the image of school food will be undertaken by the School Food Plan
Communications Group. This working group will develop a framework which articulates and delivers against
the values of school food. An agreed communication plan will be implemented.
ACTION:
Improve the image of school food.
What’s worked well:
School food has been high prole over the last year – the media made much noise over the introduction of
UIFSM. As the politics of school meals made their headlines, a cross sector Communications Group worked
hard to present an accurate and positive image about the industry and the amazing work that it does.
Hundreds of articles have appeared in mainstream consumer press – from Country Life to OK magazine,
showcasing schools with amazing school stories to tell. John Vincent joined BBC’s The One Show to tell the
incredible journey of Cheam Fields Primary School as they prepared for UIFSM – overnight increasing take-
up from 28% to 99% of infants. The BBC Food Programme has told the story of cooking on the curriculum
and the importance of the new food standards.
In September 2014, John Vincent and Tim Baker (Headteacher, Charlton Manor Primary School) were
invited to speak about ‘changing the school dinner culture’ at the Risky Business Conference, organised by
Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Snippets of Success
Throughout the year, the media have shown more appealing and accurate images of school food.
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What still needs to be done:
The Workforce group will produce a draft set of workforce professional standards by the end of December
2014, and test them with a range of cooks and caterers. We will conrm how the standards will support
current and future training and qualications. LACA will launch the new professional Standards at their
conference in July 2015.
Hotelympia have agreed to bring back a ‘school chef competition’ as part of their Salon Culinaire competition
in 2015.
ACTION: Bring school cooks closer to the rest of the catering sector.
ACTION: Improve the skills and morale of the workforce.
What’s worked well:
Under LACA’s (Lead Association for Catering in Education) leadership, the Workforce group are producing
a set of school food professional standards for a range of school food roles. People 1st, the catering and
hospitality sector skills body, is being commissioned to do this work. A mapping exercise of current training
and qualications is underway.
LACA and others held seminar events at the massive food industry’s Hotelympia event in the Spring of 2014
which showcased the excellent work undertaken by cooks and caterers working in the education sector.
Snippets of Success
Tony Mulgrew, School Chef at Ravensclie High School in Halifax, won the Cook of the year award at the coveted BBC Food
and Farming Awards. Receiving his accolade from Jamie Oliver, he helped to show the amazing job that the 70,000 school
cooks and chefs do in schools every single day.
David Laws, Minister for Schools, wrote to every school cook to congratulate them on the amazing job they do.
Read the letter here http://tinyurl.com/pqubogm.
“The future success of the school meals service rests in the hands of the cooks and catering assistants who
work each day in schools. This work, for many thousands, has just become all the more important. ISS
Education strive to give those sta the right, training, motivation and support needed to make them
succeed. This approach is encapsulated in our annual cooks conference, iCon. We are also actively
engaged in the workforce development action from the Plan as we believe that improvement in school food
comes from the people who work in school food.”
Mark Davies, Director of Education, ISS
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What still needs to be done:
Brad Pearce, project manager for the Small School Taskforce, will be publishing his nal report later in the
autumn term. This will provide the ndings from those schools that took part in the small schools pilot as
well as showcasing the dierent solutions that other catering providers are oering to the smaller schools.
ACTION: Small school taskforce – caterers, kitchen designers and
manufacturers to work together to provide good food for small
schools.
ACTION: Ensure small schools are fairly funded.
What’s worked well:
The School Food Plan oce worked closely with the DfE on the revenue funding formulas for universal
infant free school meals. We argued that the smallest schools would struggle delivering a viable food service
for £2.30, and would benet from additional funding. The Department agreed and awarded the 2000
smallest schools (those with under 150 pupils) £22.5m million to help them cope.
The Small Schools Taskforce has brought together expertise from a cross-sector coalition of caterers, kitchen
designers and manufacturers to provide solutions for small schools unable to provide a viable school meals
service. A fabulous menu has been created by Annabel Karmel, supported by Brakes. Brad Pearce, an award
winning caterer from Plymouth City Council, has acted as the Taskforce’s project manager.
The Small Schools Taskforce launched its South West Pilot project on 20th March (you can see its brochure
at www.schoolfoodplan.com/smallschools) outlining contract hire solutions for school meal delivery for
schools without kitchens.
Snippets of Success
“As a head teacher, I am aware of the importance of proper nutrition, so I was really pleased to be approached by the Small
School Taskforce. We are delighted that we can now oer school meals that the children genuinely love, whilst ensuring they
are eating healthy, fresh, nutritious hot food.”
Gina Finch, Executive Headteacher, Flying Start Federation (79 pupils)
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