Memorandum submitted by the Children's
Food Campaign
INTRODUCTION
1. The Children's Food Campaign aims to improve young
people's health and well-being through better food—and food
teaching—in schools and by protecting children from junk
food marketing. We are supported by over 150 national organisations
and co-ordinated by Sustain: the alliance for better food and
farming (for more information see www.childrensfoodcampaign.org.uk).
2. As our expertise is in the area of food, we limit
the content of this submission to this issue. We would be pleased
to provide further written or oral evidence to the Committee on
this issue.
THE IMPORTANCE
OF GOOD
FOOD AND
FOOD EDUCATION
IN SCHOOLS
3. Many children in the UK have poor diets, with
the National Diet and Nutrition Survey showing that 92% of children
consume more saturated fat than is recommended, 86% consume too
much sugar, 72% consume too much salt and 96% do not get enough
fruit and vegetables.[180]
Diets tend to be particularly poor amongst children from low income
households.[181]
Therefore the food, and information about food, that children
are provided at school has a key role to play in shaping their
present and future diet, and in turn their behaviour and health.[182]
4. There is also evidence that as well as promoting
physical health, a balanced diet contributes to children's mental
health and well-being, with resultant impacts on children's behaviour
and ability to take advantage of the educational opportunities
available to them. Conversely, a diet inadequate in quality or
quantity can negatively impact upon children's ability to learn.[183]
5. Having the skills to identify what foods constitute
a healthy diet and how to prepare them is a key way in which people
can improve their diet and health. Yet research suggests that
many people in the UK lack such skills.[184]
It is therefore vital that children are taught these skills at
school. The introduction of compulsory practical cooking lessons
for all Key Stage 3 pupils goes some way to addressing this, but
there is a need for pupils to develop a greater understanding
of where their food comes from and how it is produced. Food growing
activities can make a considerable contribution to this, with
some evidence suggesting that environmental concerns resonate
more with young people than health messages; food growing engages
pupils on the former while supporting the latter.[185]
THE ROLE
OF OFSTED
IN PROMOTING
GOOD FOOD
CULTURE IN
SCHOOLS
6. We welcome Ofsted's recent report on Food in Schools,
which provided valuable and detailed evidence about the implementation
of improvements in food and food teaching in 39 schools.[186]
However, this work is not comprehensive, failing to include the
other 22,000 state schools in England.[187]
7. We are concerned that currently, Ofsted inspection
criteria are inadequate to enable the routine inspection of the
quality of food on offer in schools in order to assess whether
or not meals meet the nutritional standards which they are legally
obliged to meet. Similarly, the current criteria fail to monitor
the extent to which schools promote their lunch service. Promotion
is vital in order to increase the take-up of school meals, allowing
the school meal service to become economically viable, and reducing
reliance on government subsidy.
8. We are further concerned that the recent announcement
by Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove that in future
Ofsted inspections will focus only on the quality of teaching,
effectiveness of leadership, pupil behaviour and safety and achievement.
In spite of the fact that the quality of food in schools can have
in improving behaviour and attainment, it appears that school
food will no longer be monitored. It is also unclear whether secondary
schools' compliance with their obligation to deliver practical
cooking lessons will be assessed.
EVIDENCE FOR
THE COMMITTEE
We are pleased to respond to the following points:
— What
the purposes of inspection should be (relating not only to schools
but to all organisations, settings and services under Ofsted's
remit)
9. The Children's Food Campaign maintains that the
purpose of inspection should be to ensure that schools and other
organisations, settings and services under Ofsted's remit are
meeting minimum standards in all relevant areas of policy and
legislation, and are taking steps to improve delivery beyond minimum
compliance. Ofsted's inspection criteria must therefore be broader
than is implied by the recent announcement in order to ensure
that standards in areas such as school meals are being met. Without
Ofsted taking this role, such standards are less likely to be
met, and much of the hard work which has been invested in improving
the school meals service and increasing take-up risks being reversed.
10. With reference to early years settings in particular,
we note that recent research by LACORS (now Local Government Regulation)
suggests that, despite the best of intentions by staff, the food
provided in early years settings does not always meet the nutritional
needs of children in their care.[188]
This is supported by an earlier investigation into the food served
in nurseries, which found great variability in the food served
in early years settings, with foods that are restricted or banned
in schools being regularly served in some nurseries.[189]
Under the auspices of the School Food Trust, an Advisory Panel
on Food and Nutrition in Early Years has been set up to make recommendations
on guidance and/or standards for the provision of food in early
years settings, and is due to report shortly. Experience of efforts
to improve school food demonstrates that regulation is necessary
to ensure that all children get the best nutrition outcomes within
the diverse early years sector. As for schools, compliance should
be monitored by Ofsted.
— The
impact of the inspection process on school improvement
11. As explained above, it is important that schools
have a clear incentive to ensure that the school food nutritional
standards are met and that the school meal service is promoted
in order to continue the increase in school meal take-up which
will enable the school meal service to become economically viable
without long term government support. The inclusion of such criteria
in the Ofsted inspection process would ensure that this incentive
is maintained at a minimal cost.
— The
weight given to different factors within the inspection process
12. The Children's Food Campaign recognises the government's
desire to reduce bureaucracy and focus on key areas. However,
we are concerned that in doing so, other important areas such
as food will be neglected, with the result that schools will lack
an incentive to improve or maintain the quality of the food served
and that in some schools this will lead to a decline in standards,
with a negative impact on pupil health and well-being.
— Whether
inspection of all organisations, settings and services to support
children's learning and welfare is best conducted by a single
inspectorate
13. We recommend that Ofsted's inspection criteria
should be extended to cover all the potential benefits good food
can bring. The inspection of school food should remain within
the responsibility of a main schools' inspectorate, however, as
the influence of good food and food culture extends to every facet
of school life.
— The
role of Ofsted in providing an accountability mechanism for schools
operating with greater autonomy
14. Given the importance of school food in influencing
children's food preferences and eating habits, we believe that
mechanisms to ensure that school food meets the nutritional standards
are necessary for all schools, including "Outstanding"
schools, which may be granted less frequent inspections.
15. We are disappointed that the new academies and
"free schools" will not be required to meet the school
food standards, and strongly recommend that some mechanism be
implemented to ensure that food standards in these schools are
not neglected, as this would risk a return to the problems that
the nutritional standards were introduced to address.
October 2010
180 National Statistics (2000) National Diet and
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Office of National Statistics. Back
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