School Meals

Tim Marsh, additional research by Felicity Garvie, John Mulvey and Marjorie Shepherd

"Schools are in a unique position to encourage and facilitate healthy eating".

The Scottish Diet Action Plan

"School ethos, policies, services and extra curricular activities foster mental, physical and social well being and healthy development".

The Scottish Public Health White Paper Towards a Healthier Scotland (1999)

Food, nutrition and low income

There is increasing evidence, linking what we eat as children and our health in later life. Poor diet not only leads to ill health, its effects are often invisible, impeding a child's cognitive development and thus educational performance. The body first uses energy to maintain critical organ functions, then growth and lastly social activity and cognitive development.

Spending on children in percentage terms is fairly uniform across income groups because parents often make sacrifices to feed their children¹. However, poor families spend proportionately more of their income on food - 21 per cent compared to the national average of 17 per cent. Unfortunately, cheaper foods are generally the least nutritious; they are often fatty, oily foods, high in salt and sugar. The Poverty and Social Exclusion 2000² survey, the largest study of poverty carried out in the UK, found that 9 per cent of 'poor children' didn't have fresh fruit or vegetables daily and 21 per cent failed to have two substantive meals daily. Research³ has also shown that, children from low-income families tend to receive more of their preferred foods such as chips, beans, burgers and pizzas than their more affluent counterparts, because this avoided waste. These foods tend to be most heavily marketed towards children.

Schools therefore have an important role in addressing poor diet amongst children, both in provision of food but also in educating children and providing them with the necessary skills to eat more healthily.

Free School Meals

School meals have played an important role in the nutrition of children for over 100 years. Universal school meals were introduced in the 1940s. By the end of the 1970s the UK had a comprehensive school meals service, which on the whole was cheap and had a decent level of free provision for those children from poor families. Whilst there was some disquiet about a decline in nutritional standards, the post-war development of the service had created a platform from which nutritional poverty affecting children could be tackled in a systematic way.

The undermining of the service

The election of the Conservative administration in 1979 signalled a wholesale shift in Government attitude to the school meals service and free school meal provision. Their watchwords were "choice and parental responsibility". State provision of such a service was viewed as bureaucratic and expensive. It was felt that private catering companies could provide a more efficient service and so better value. This ethos was carried into law by way of two Acts, which fundamentally altered the post-war school meals service.

1980 Education (Scotland) Act

The 1980 Education (Scotland) Act introduced a number of changes, which began to undermine the breadth of provision and nutritional content of free school meals. Measures included the removal of the Local Education Authorities (LEAs) statutory duty to provide a midday meal for all pupils that was "suitable in all respects as the main meal of the day". Instead LEAs were only required to provide meals for children whose parents claimed supplementary benefit or family income supplement (forebears of today's income support, job seeker's allowance or working families' tax credits). LEAs could still give free school meals on a discretionary basis for those children from low-income families. The Act also abolished the minimum nutritional standards that controlled the quality of the school meals and the fixed price "national charge" for school meals.

1986 Social Security Act

The 1986 Social Security Act, which came into operation in 1988, introduced further changes to the system. The most important of the changes was to withdraw provision of free school meals for families receiving family income supplement and to replace it with a notional amount included in family credit. As a result well over half a million children from low-income families lost entitlement to a free school meal. In addition the Act also required LEAs providing school meals and free milk to charge for them in all cases, except where parents received income support.

Without statutory nutritional standards, price controls or a mandatory requirement to provide a meal for all children the national and comprehensive nature of the service was eroded. In effect, this has led to wide variation in the type, quantity and quality of paid for and free school meals provided. Moreover one million poor children were and are missing out on a free school meal in the UK and at least 300,000 are not getting the meal to which they are entitled. By the time of the 1997 general election the school meals service had changed out of all recognition, it was, no longer a national service that could be an effective instrument for Government health policy.

Scottish Executive

There has been some recognition by the current Government of these problems. The Scottish Executive have introduced a range of measures in schools to improve children's health. Some mirror developments in the UK, some are unique to Scotland. These include fruit and salad bars, healthy tuck-shops and breakfast clubs. The Scottish Executive recently announced the establishment of an "expert panel" to devise national nutritional standards improve the appeal of school meals and maximise the uptake of free school meals. Speaking at its launch the Scottish Health minister Susan Deacon MSP said, "the standards will give each child in Scotland access to well balanced, healthy school food".

However, according to UK Government statistics about 29 per cent of Scottish children live below the Governments poverty line.⁴ This means that 30 per cent of children officially classified as living in poverty are not entitled to a free school meal and are unlikely to have the means to participate in these benefits.

Scottish School Meals

Scottish Executive figures show that over 144,000 Scottish school students are recorded as entitled to free school meals. Entitlement to free school meals in Scotland is 21 per cent of primary school pupils and 17 per cent for secondary schools. Overall around 19 per cent of all children in Scotland are entitled to free school meals. Glasgow city council had the highest percentage of children entitled to a free school meal (41 per cent) and Aberdeenshire had the lowest (7 per cent).

Take Up

The take up of school meals varies greatly within Scotland from 88.8 per cent in Shetland to 36.7 per cent in Edinburgh City. Even within local authorities there are examples of secondary schools with relatively similar socio-economic populations with very high and very low take up. Recent research in East Dumbarton⁵ highlights some of the reasons. These include: quality of environment, length of queues, year rotas, information, other activities, noise, lack of supervision, the provision of alternatives, children in inner cities are also likely to be surrounded by take-aways which actively promote themselves to school children with special offers. The Scottish Executive have identified stigma as a major issue with free school meals, when setting up their "expert panel" the Deputy Minister of Education Nicol Stephen said, "children need to feel able to take free school meals without fear of social stigma"

Many local authorities do not accept stigma is a problem. However Local Authorities, which have initiated schemes to address stigma, have seen significant increases in uptake of Free School Meals. Aberdeen City Council piloted a swipe card scheme in two of its secondary schools in 1999, which showed increases and a reduction in cash related bullying. Fife and Falkirk, amongst others, are also piloting swipe card schemes. lnverclyde council are piloting a scheme supported by the local health board aimed to increase uptake amongst pupils entitled to free school meals.

Research also shows the attitude to information provision also varies considerably. Some councils feel that no information is needed because "everyone knows about entitlement" and, others for example, Edinburgh City Council provide information to housing benefit recipients encouraging them to apply.⁶

Nutritional Standards

Providers of School Meals work to standards and rules set by the local authorities which leads to wide variations in services. Some authorities, Edinburgh for example, use the Caroline Walker Trust "Nutritional Guidelines for School Meals"⁷ which are widely regarded as the most appropriate for use in schools. Nine local authorities use the Scottish Diet Action Plan and the Scottish healthy choice award scheme.⁸ Others, for example, Argyll and Bute Council, have forged partnerships with the health board and education services in school food strategy groups. Aberdeen City council has introduced an Accord Card, which uses Smart card technology scheme. Each pupil has a healthy eating loyalty card, which provides discounts to services outside of school such as leisure, transport, as a reward for healthy eating choices.

Practicalities of universal provision of free school meals ⁹

Local Authorities were asked what barriers and benefits there were to a universal free school meal service. Several local authorities that responded commented on the potential benefits of universal free school meal and offered support for the bill. However concerns were also raised, East Ayrshire Council comments summed up the general view: "Such provision could only be supported if full funding were provided by the Scottish executive. Such funding would need to cover the full economic cost of providing meals together with the related costs such as dining hall supervision. Depending on uptake there might also have to be additional costs on matters such as furniture and kitchen equipment".

Notes

1 Family Expenditure Survey (1999) Office for National Statistics London: TSO

2 Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey (2000) Joseph Rowntree Foundation York:JRF

3 Diet, Choice and Poverty (1994) Dobson, Beardsworth, Keil et al London: Family Policy Studies Centre

4 Households Below Average Income 1999/2000 (2001) Department of Work and Pensions, Leeds: Corporate Document Services

5,6 Research carried out by Felicity Garvie, Parliamentary assistant to Tommy Sheridan MSP and collated by John Mulvey and Marjorie Shepherd

7 Nutritional Guidelines for Schools: Caroline Walker Trust

8 Of those who replied to research carried out by Felicity Garvie, Parliamentary assistant to Tommy Sheridan MSP and collated by John Mulvey and Marjorie Shepherd

9 Based on responses to research carried out by Felicity Garvie, Parliamentary assistant to Tommy Sheridan MSP and collated by John Mulvey and Marjorie Shepherd

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