More detail from the Department of Education re future of School Food Trust

Below is a quote taken from The Department for Education press release about yesterdays announcement.

“The Government is committed to ensuring that pupils can eat healthy, nutritious school food. The School Food Trust has developed significant expertise around the school food agenda over the past five years and continues to have an important role to play in supporting schools and local authorities to meet the nutritional standards. As a Community Interest Company, the Trust will continue to be able to play that role and to provide advice to the Government, which is informed by the practical work it does out in the field. It will also have the freedom to sell its services - advice, guidance, research - to local authorities, schools, caterers and others on a commercial basis.

Community Interest Companies (CICS) are limited companies, with special additional features, created for the use of people who want to conduct a business or other activity for community benefit, and not purely for private advantage. This is achieved by a "community interest test" and "asset lock", which ensures that the CIC is established for community purposes and the assets and profits are dedicated to these purposes. Registration of a company as a CIC has to be approved by the Regulator who also has a continuing monitoring and enforcement role.

We expect that the Trust will continue to take forward a number of activities for the Department. The level of future DfE support for the Trust is dependent on the spending review outcome and the tasks SFT are asked to undertake for DfE.”