Background Information:
Sheffield ‘Food in Schools Group’ (FISG) is a city wide operation that aims to promote healthy food and drink choices throughout the whole school day and to ensure joined up working. FISG incorporates partners from the Children and Young People’s Directorate, NHS Sheffield, Sheffield Healthy Schools Programme, Sheffield 5 A Day and the school meal contractor.
Their drive towards change was fuelled by a combination of factors, including negative feedback from schools in school meals survey, negative national and regional media including a damaging ‘Cheap as Chips’ Star Newspaper report and the cessation of the present school meals contract in July 2006.
What action did Sheffield FISG take?
2006 – 2009
- Head teacher School Meals Survey to determine perceptions of the current service and a follow up improvement plan.
- Parent / Carer / Pupil School Meals Survey sent to 28,000 homes and a subsequent report forwarded to senior stakeholders.
- A two day marquee event was held in Sheffield City Centre. During the event parents and pupils were surveyed on school meals.
- Marketing activities to promote school meals across Sheffield including: a radio phone in and advertisement campaign, Free School Meals posters, Sheffield School Meals Website, information leaflet (sent to 40,000 homes), ‘Primary Sector Support Pack’ and reward stickers developed and sent to schools.
- New and healthier ‘Winter Menu’ was launched in all Infant and Primary Schools as a direct response to parent’s feedback from the survey.
- Food Tasting Sessions were held across Sheffield to promote the new Winter Menu.
- Sheffield Let’s Change4Life Programme launched – schools at the heart of healthy communities identified as a key theme. Funding to support school food allocated.
2009 – 2010
- Sheffield City Council has purchased 45 individual licenses of the Nutmeg Nutritional Analysis software package for schools who self manage catering. This will enable schools who determine their own provision to ensure that their menus are compliant with the nutritional guidelines.
- Furthermore an audit is currently taking place on all schools who self manage their catering service to identify whether the school food is compliant.
- A stay on site framework was developed to support schools to implement a successful stay on site policy. Sheffield FISG are hoping to support up to 12 schools to introduce a stay on site policy.
- A citywide healthy lunch box policy is under development and will be rolled out across all schools
- Citywide networks of school cookery clubs and growing clubs established
- Programme of Lunch Time Supervisor Training commissioned
- Targeted support to increase school meal uptake underway – School Nutrition Action Group framework developed
What were the outcomes and benefits?
2006-2009
The Head Teacher School Meals Survey reported that pupils and parents were very positive about the new school meals following the introduction of the new Winter Menu. Anecdotally school staff noted that pupils demonstrated improved attention in lessons since water was more readily provided throughout the school day.
The Food in Schools Sheffield marquee was a great success. It helped to promote a positive image of school meals and proved a useful format for gathering school meals survey responses from pupil and parents (around 5,000 respondents).
FISG has assisted in developing clear strategies and a common approach to performance improvements across the service. By targeting primary schools initially this has enabled the catering contractor to improve their service in a manageable way.
Following the launch of the marketing strategy Sheffield saw an increase in take up across all local schools by 3.5% in the first month.
2009-2010
The review procedure highlighted that 70% of Sheffield schools in the Council’s school catering contract are meeting the nutritional standards, with the majority doing so before the legal deadline.
So far four schools are actively working to introduce a stay on site policy within their schools. A further 4 schools have expressed an interest in implementing a policy. Schools will also receive up to £10,000 from the Lets Change4Life Programme to make some of the necessary improvements to the school lunch experience to complement the policy. More recently Sheffield FISG have been working with the Licensing Authority to ensure that they are informed of any new applications for mobile caterers wanting to trade within a close proximity to schools.
Sheffield FISG believes the changes which have taken place in relation to school food will continue to be positive and effective, and will become embedded within the school culture. Sheffield City Council has also received an excellence rating in customer service due to the improvements made to the school food service. This was achieved as a result of effective partnership working with NHS Sheffield..
How do Sheffield FISG plan to maintain sustainability?
Sheffield FISG want to focus on increasing take up of free school meals and promoting the whole school approach to healthy eating. They will continue to address all aspects of food in schools.
Further sustainability will be perpetuated by communication and information provision. Due to the Enhanced Healthy School Programme schools’ understand that providing nutritional school food is instrumental in tackling obesity figures.
www.sheffieldhealthyschools.co.uk
What has been learnt?
Partnership working has been extremely beneficial. Presenting a united front sends a powerful message that all partners (Local Authorities, Schools, Nutritionists etc) agree that the changes to school food are necessary and positive. Leah Barratt Sheffield City Council’s School Food Service Manager, comments “We have all got to be working towards the same ends. It is important to work in partnership with other stakeholders and to share good and bad examples of practise”.
In one PFI (Private Finance Initiative) school a new cashless system was introduced but a lack of communication about the changes resulted in complaints and broken and missing cards. Sheffield FISG has learnt that these problems occur less frequently in schools where all parents, pupils and staff are involved in the decision making process from the start.
Future priorities:
The current Local Authority catering contract is due to an end in 2011. Sheffield City Council are planning to host a series of events whereby they will consult with parents and governors to tailor the new catering contract to meet the needs of both pupils and parents. One challenge will be accommodating the impact of the Building Schools For the Future programme within the Secondary sector; who are all at different stages of development. For the Primary sector there is the issue of offering a more flexible menu approach with differing needs across the city
Resources:
The Local Authority Targeted Support Team at the Trust are currently working in partnership with Sheffield FISG. Sheffield was selected for this support after holding discussions with the Government Office and looking into factors such as school meal take up and obesity levels. Specifically, in Sheffield, take up at primary level is just 33.6% which is 11.3% lower than the regional average, and 25.5% in secondary schools; 10.9% lower than the regional average. Sheffield also has a lower take up than the national averages. As such, the focus of the targeted support will be on increasing the number of pupils that have a healthy school meal.
The Trust has been working with Sheffield City Council since October 2009 and has recently finalised and agreed an Action Plan. This is made up of 22 different actions including interventions aimed at improving marketing, stakeholder engagement, the focus at a strategic level, training, and the ‘customer journey’ in the dining room.
Specifically with regards to partnership working, there are plans to improve the engagement of key stakeholders including Head Teachers, Governors, parents and pupils via a variety of means including surveys, newsletters and workshops. There are also plans to raise the profile of school food by ensuring it is on the agenda at important meetings including the Sheffield Youth Council and the Parents Assembly.
This Action Plan will be implemented from March 2010 and Sheffield will have the support of the Trust in doing so until early 2011. Ongoing evaluation and monitoring throughout the process will enable a full assessment of the outcomes of this work and hopefully see an increase in school meal take up.
Since March 2010 when work on the Action Plan commenced, take up of school meals has increased. The latest figures as of August 2010 showed primary school take up at 35.3% and secondary school take up at 29.1%. This indicates that some of the improvements to the school food service are already having a positive impact.
Contact Details:
If you would like further information about this case study then please contact us on 0800 089 5001 or alternatively email the Trust at info@childrensfoodtrust.org.uk
