Consultation – Proposals For Healthy Eating In Schools Measure

National Association of Head Teachers

Response prepared by:
Anna Brychan
Director
NAHT Cymru
9 Columbus Walk
Cardiff

29.02.08

Introduction:

Thank you or inviting NHAT Cymru to respond to this consultation. We have included several comments on the specific proposals in the Measure. We would however reiterate that the overwhelming response of our members to this Measure has been negative.

While members accept that the intention underpinning the Measure are honourable and well-meaning, they believe that in practice it will be ineffective and will:

• Disproportionately penalise schools in deprived areas who already face considerable challenges

• Damage goodwill and undermine existing initiatives which are meeting with some success

• Make headteachers and Governors accountable via Estyn for a service over which they have no control.

Consultation Questions

• Do you think that the proposed Measure will promote a holistic ‘all school’ approach to healthy eating? Are there any additional powers that could be included in the Measure to further promote this approach in schools?

• The proposed Measure provides for Regulations which will specify nutritional standards to be introduced by Welsh Ministers. Do you think that this incremental approach will ensure that children, young people and parents are not alienated by the speed of the reforms?

NAHT Cymru response:

Possibly. However, we are mindful of the situation in England where many school meal providers simply went out of business when more regulation was introduced on the quality and content of school meals – largely because the take up rate in schools decreased dramatically after pupils found the food unattractive.

Several individual local authorities in Wales who have made some considerable headway in providing and promoting healthier food were themselves concerned that a model similar to that in England would in fact undermine the progress already made in Wales.

In explaining the context for her Measure, Jenny Randerson argues that the ‘goodwill’ approach evident in existing policy initiatives does not offer enough opportunity to monitor and evaluate success/failure in this policy area. We disagree. We believe that existing, and effective, programmes such as the Healthy Schools Scheme are making a difference and such progress could only be damaged by greater diktat.

• Are there any additional powers which should be added to the proposed Measure that would further improve healthy eating in schools?

• Does the proposed Measure promote satisfactorily the principles of sustainable development in the provision of healthy school food?

• Do you agree with the duties, responsibilities and reporting requirements proposed for Assembly Ministers, Local Education Authorities and the Chief Inspector of Schools are sufficient to have a positive impact on the implementation and monitoring of healthy eating in schools?

NAHT Cymru response:

Duties, responsibilities and reporting requirements are also imposed on headteachers and school governing bodies in this Measure. We are concerned about the following aspects:

i. Promotion Of Healthy School Food And The Inspection System

i. It is unclear how it would be determined whether a headteacher/governing body had discharged their responsibility to ‘promote’ healthy eating and how success would be measured.

The Measure states that in his/her annual report on healthy eating a headteacher must describe ‘what steps have been taken to promote healthy eating in the school during the period to which the report relates and on the extent to which those steps appear to have been successful.’

The Measure also proposes that schools’ success in this area is evaluated as part of the inspection process. The Chief Inspector of Schools will be empowered to evaluate the extent to which the duty to promote healthy eating ‘is being complied with in relation to schools maintained by local authorities in Wales; and appears to have resulted in an increase in healthy eating in those schools.’

Estyn’s involvement makes clarity about the grounds on which success/failure are to be judged of critical importance to headteachers. Members will be quite rightly wary of the implications of this. If a school, and a headteacher’s, success is to be measured by, for example, an increased uptake of school meals generally or an increase in the uptake of free school meals by eligible pupils, there is a danger of making headteachers/ governing bodies accountable for a service over which they have no control.

Much has been made of the lack of resources currently allocated for school meals, and the effect this has on nutritional content and attractiveness to pupils – and consequent take up - of those meals. Schools – and headteachers and governors – do not control these resources. This is ultimately a matter for the local authority.

NAHT Cymru members already have unfortunate experience of being penalised by the inspection service – with all the consequent profoundly negative effects on individual schools – for aspects of school life which need additional resources, resources which are not, and never have been, in the power of the headteacher/governing body to grant. The inspection service has in some cases reported unfavourably on schools’ provision of e.g. the outdoor classroom for the Foundation Phase curriculum. Such a judgement reflects unfavourably on the headteacher even though he/she has absolutely no access to the resources required to address the deficiency.

We are also concerned that this will affect disproportionately schools in deprived areas. Traditionally children eat less healthily - for cost and other reasons - in these communities. It follows logically therefore that schools in these communities would have far further to travel to achieve a national standard determined by WAG, local authorities and, crucially, Estyn, the inspection service. Though we have no doubt that placing further unattainable targets on schools that already face significant challenges, would be an entirely unintended consequence of this Measure, we would resist such additional burdens very strenuously on behalf of members. this

If this Measure is successfully passed, it will be followed by regulations detailing the nutritional content of all food and drink available in schools (other than that brought from home by pupils). In addition to requiring compliance with these regulations in relation to pupils in education, Governors ‘must secure that any applicable provisions of the regulations are complied with…whether the food or drink is provided in pursuance of any statutory requirement or otherwise…When the provision is by a person (“X”) other than the authority or the governing body of a school; and X uses or occupies the whole or part of the premises in circumstances related to a use or occupation agreement made...with the authority of the governing body.’ This has significant implications in the context of community focussed schools where there may be considerably increased use of school buildings by individuals and groups not connected with the school.

We would urge very strongly that the Governing Body’s compliance could be demonstrated by securing a simple signature by the users’ of the school buildings undertaking to comply with the healthy food regulations. A requirement to do any more than that would undermine schools’ capacity to engage with the development of community focussed schools.

ii.  Reporting

The Measure states that:

‘at least once in every school year, the headteacher of every school maintained by a local authority in Wales must report in writing to:- the Local Education Authority; the governing body of a school; the parents of pupils currently registered at the school; and the public generally; describing what steps have been taken to promote healthy eating in the school…and on the extent to which those steps appear to have been successful.’

The Measure also states that Welsh Ministers will determine the form of such reports and the means by which they are communicated.

We would urge most strongly that steps are taken to make sure that this is a genuinely useful report which does not involve an excessive bureaucratic effort for little gain. We also feel that an annual report is more than adequate and that the words ‘at least once’ be removed.

In determining the method of reporting, Welsh Ministers must be mindful of the role of SWAP (The School Workload Advisory Panel) in ensuring that schools are not subject to excessive bureaucratic burdens.

Reporting annually on i) uptake of free school meals ii) uptake of school meals generally iii) efforts to promote healthy eating within the school are acceptable only if:

• It is not bureaucratically onerous to complete such reporting; and that the same information, in the same simple format is specified for each of the audiences a school must inform. We would also urge that the information be included in existing publications/communications and certainly not result in a further administrative burden.

• That it is always clear that the responsibility for the level of resources allocated to school food and the facilities available to prepare it are the responsibility of the LEA in most cases, and private catering companies in others, not the individual school

• That it is recognised that headteachers/governors are not qualified, nor should they be required, to judge the nutritional content of the food provided

• That if Estyn are to evaluate the nutritional content of school food/efforts to promote school food, they make clear where the responsibility for proper resourcing of school food lies.

The Measure also requires Welsh Ministers to report annually on the progress/increase in healthy eating in schools. It states that the Welsh Ministers’ report to the Assembly must include ‘the extent to which there appears to have been an increase in healthy eating in those schools.’

NAHT Cymru presumes that much of this information would be gleaned from schools’ own annual report on healthy eating. We would urge very strongly that, when Welsh Ministers require the information, it is collated by each local authority and forwarded to WAG.

We would wish to avoid a second request made to schools for information on the promotion of healthy eating after they have provided a report to its own required audiences.

• There will be a financial cost as a result of the proposals in the Measure on the Welsh Assembly Government, Local Education Authorities, schools, and to a lesser extent on Estyn. Will these proposals result in your organisation incurring extra costs, and if yes, what will these costs be? (please quantify)