Background Information
In April 2009 Northumberland County Council was approached by the School Food Trust to take part in a pilot Small Step Improvement Programme. Northumberland were chosen to take part in the pilot as a result of their previous engagement with the School Food Trust. The county had shown a willingness and commitment to improving the school food service.
The Small Step Improvement pilot commenced at the end of January 2009 and finished in April 2009. In the initial pilot 10 schools were involved from across the Local Authority. Please click on the following link if you would like more information regarding Small Step Improvements.
www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/ssi
Why did Northumberland want to change their school meal provision?
Prior to Jamie Oliver and the hype around school meals Northumberland County Council were already using some local produce and had invested heavily into introducing food courts and new service areas in middle schools. They were also looking at introducing family service concepts in these schools. Cashless catering was already part of the service and had been used to encourage free meal take up by reducing stigma. Take up of paid and free school meals (FSMs) was at 63%.
Who was involved in implementing the changes?
- Facilities Management
- Children’s Services
- Extended Services
- Care Trust
- Food in Schools Programme
Rudy Imhoof Head of Facilities Management approached Children’s Services in Northumberland to raise the agenda of school food and the need for strong links between both directorates within the council.
Lee Harland Food in Schools Coordinator was employed to ensure that Children’s Services and Facilities Management worked in harmony to improve lunchtime provision across the county through strong partnership working.
What improvements did Northumberland County Council make to school meal provision?
Small Step Improvement Programme:
Following the success of the pilot project Northumberland made the decision to roll the Small Step Improvement programme out across the county, once a term. This training has been offered to all schools across the county and Northumberland Care Trust is supporting the programme by encouraging schools with high levels of obesity to sign up. The School Food Trust in Partnership with Northumberland County Council produced a DVD to explain the Small Step Improvement Programme. Lee Harland comments that “the DVD has been particularly useful for encouraging schools to sign up to the programme because it features local schools. All schools in Northumberland have been made aware of the programme through email correspondence via the internal e-courier system”. Schools responded very well to the training tool at the start of the programme as it set clear expectations and featured local case studies.
School Food Strategy:
Northumberland County Council has just launched their School Food Strategy which was developed in collaboration with key stakeholders such as Extended Services and the School Food Trust. A hard copy was sent out to key contacts within every school including the Head Teacher, Unit Manager and Chair of Governors. The strategy integrated the SSI Programme as a method for improving school meals and tackling obesity figures locally. To view a copy of the strategy please visit the website www.fuelforlife.co.uk
The strategy will support the ongoing work currently taking place in Northumberland to tackle childhood obesity levels. It will drive forward the partnership work with Northumberland Care Trust and feed into the county wide obesity strategy.
As part of the strategy Northumberland County Council aimed to deliver a number of pilot projects as part of the Tailored Support Programme Action Plan including: Your Choice, Fuel to Go, Parent Pay and the Growing Minds Project.
Action Plan
‘Your choice’ has been successfully piloted in 18 First and Primary Schools aiming to deliver a more desirable and individual menu choice for the customers. The concept of ‘Your Choice’ enables each school to have ownership and develop their own menu. The initiative requires the catering staff and school staff to work in partnership, to improve the school food service. The menus have all been analysed by the Catering Recipe Information System (CRISp). This system analyses the nutritional content and cost of recipes to ensure that they fully comply with the food and nutritional standards for a copy of the “Your Choice” menu please visit www.fuelforlife.co.uk.
The menu choice must to be decided by the following: The Unit Catering Manager; Headteacher and the School Council and/or School Nutrition Action Group (SNAG). Consultation with pupils and parents is a crucial part of “your choice” and schools can vote on what meal option is most popular within school.
A further initiative ‘Fuel to Go’ was introduced in middle and high schools. The concept was born from the SSI Programme whereby, one of the middle schools involved successfully trialled a grab bag system. ‘Fuel to Go’ has been implemented to tackle the drop in take up of school meals during the summer months through introducing a grab bag system, which can be eaten outside. Northumberland have asked schools to take responsibility for controlling levels of litter. Excessive littering will result in the initiative being withdrawn from the pilot school. Furthermore, all grab and go packaging has been made from recyclable and biodegradable materials.
The Growing Minds project is currently being piloted in 10 Middle schools to encourage pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM’s) to claim there entitlement. Pupils are allocated three herbs to grow in an allotment which once harvested will be used in the food served at their schools. The School Unit Manager becomes a “Food Champion” and is tasked with the responsibility of coordinating a team of pupils “buddies” to grow the herbs.
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Northumberland have recently launched a new 3 day training course targeting Lunchtime Supervisors. The aim is to raise awareness and offer practical solutions to tackle: improving food and nutrition, behaviour management and improving the lunchtime experience.
A further training course is being rolled out with Teaching Assistants striving to move towards becoming High Level Teaching Assistants (HLTA’s) from 16 schools. The aim is to support them to deliver aspects of the curriculum linking to the school food agenda and practical cookery. HTLA’s are predominantly classroom based and the future focus will be to enable them to support pupils during the lunchtime period.
What have been the benefits to the school food service?
Take up:
Overall take up has increased for schools with Local Authority catering from 42.1% in 2008/2009 to 43.19% in 2009/2010, since making improvements to the school food provision. FSM take up for Local Authority catered for schools has also increased from 76.1% in 2008/2009 to 77.68% 2009/2010. The take up of paid school meals for Local Authority catered for schools has increased from 36.7% 2008/2009 to 37.97%.
Small Step Improvement Programme
One of the schools involved in the first roll out Small Step Improvement Programme has won the Million Meals School of the Month competition. A further three schools have entered the competition and are awaiting the outcome. The initiative has also enabled those schools involved to form wider support networks and positive working relationships with other staff from different schools.
School Food Strategy:
The School Food Strategy has been included in Northumberland’s Service Plan and Children and Young People’s Plan indicating that the profile of school food is rising in the County. Northumberland County Council has also recently received the Bronze Catering Award from Food For Life.
The strategy has been a huge success and has highlighted to schools and the wider community that the council has a clear vision as to where they want to be in the next few years.
Schools and partners have been extremely positive about this document and have had commented that this is “a workable and realistic document”.
Governors have all attended a training session around School Food and have fed back positive comments with regards to the strategy. “This is a clear and concise strategy which is easy to read, I fully support the work the county are doing to increase school meal uptake”
Action Plan
All the initiatives are in the pilot process so at the moment it is difficult to measure the full impact on take up of paid and free school meals.
The ‘Your Choice’ pilot has enabled schools to take control of their school meal service and create menus unique to the school. Parents and pupils are also engaging with the school food service through school council and SNAG meetings.
‘Fuel to Go’ is proving popular in Middle schools and take up will be monitored during the summer months to determine whether the initiative has been successful in maintaining food sales.
Teachers and school staff have reported that more pupils are claiming free school meals as a result of the ‘Growing Minds’ initiative. Furthermore, members from the wider community are getting involved in the ‘Growing Minds’ project.
Lunchtime Supervisors now feel appreciated within their role at lunchtimes and have gained knowledge of: food and nutrition, behaviour management and how to increase take up
Teaching Assistants are now taking an active role in food education and have achieved both accredited Food Hygiene and accredited Level 2 Award in Food and Special Diets. Teaching Assistants feel confident in delivering practical food education and nutrition skills to pupils through the curriculum and have made strong links with the kitchen staff and unit managers in their schools.
Tips for success:
- It has been important to use a variety of methods to publicise an initiative or programme.
- It has been important to adopt smaller groups when rolling out the SSI programme. Those programmes involving 7-10 schools have worked well because staff have been able to develop positive relationships and networks.
- It has been important to develop effective partnership working when developing the School Food Strategy. Key partners have felt included and understand that they have a specific role to play in improving school food.
- It has been important to adopt creative thinking when developing an action plan to raise the profile of school food.
“Partnership working is the key to success around the food agenda. Liaise with pupils as consultation with pupils and school staff is vital” comments Lee Harland Food in Schools Coordinator.
Future priorities:
Northumberland County Council are currently looking for funding opportunities to enable them to expand the action plan and offer targeted support to schools in wards with high level obesity figures.
As the profile of school food is being raised in Northumberland, the county would like to develop a packed lunch policy to launch in schools.
Contact information:
If you would like further information then please contact the School Food Trust on 0800 089 5001 or alternatively please email info@sft.gsi.gov.uk
