Some great letters in today's Guardian about Andrew lansley's ill informed comments about school dinners that are worth a read. Click here
I was on BBC Breakfast yesterday at 8.10 to talk about Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley's comment that the Jamie Oliver campaign to get school kids to eat as healthy food had failed. He cited as "evidence" the fact that school meal uptake had fallen.
Lansley needs to look at the bigger picture. For the last 30 years there has been a decline in school meals. In fact when a Thatcherite government abolished minimum nutritional standards numbers eating the food fell. When compulsory competitive tendering was introduced numbers declined yet further. Of course when Jamie Oliver revealed the poor quality of the food many parents were so disgusted they stopped buying school meals so numbers fell. When the new food standards were introduced so that caterers were no longer able to sell mars and coke to kids - numbers fell. But the crucial thing that Andrew Lansley managed to miss is that school food numbers for the first time in 30 years are now beginning to grow. The last 2 years have seen an increase.
I spend a lot of time with both parents and young people and the biggest reason they cite for not having school food is cost. This has been born out by the recent Ofsted report that gives feedback from one parent who describes choosing which of her children can a school meal in day as she can't afford to pay for all of them.
It is a complex challenge for all of us to get as many children as possible to have good quality tasty affordable school meals. This isn't helped by uniformed comments by high profile ministers. I have invited Mr Lansley to come to Merton to talk to children and families for himself. Watch this space ....
Incidentally, if you saw BBC Breakfast yesterday the BBC mistakenly described me as School Food Trust rather than Chair of Merton parents for Better Food in Schools. Whilst I am on the board of the School Food Trust I was not speaking on their behalf but rather expressing my personal views.
Is this really what Andrew Lansley wants to see a return to? I would hope that as health secretary he might be concerned that a diet like this could have implications for children's health. The standards established by the School Food Trust and food campaigners are the only defence we have against a return to the bad old days of nutritionally poor food.
I am bewildered, perplexed and dismayed by our health secretary's speech today to the BMA. He appears to have totally misunderstood the Jamie Oliver campaign to improve school food.
Jamie did the nation a huge service by revealing the atrocious state of school dinners. Abolishing nutritional standards, insisting on using lowest cost providers, ripping out proper kitchens in favour of re gen ovens led to truly terrible school food.
Jamie's campaign led to an increase in funding and the establishment of the School Food Trust. They in turn have done a magnificent job in establishing minimum nutritional standards for the food and have helped schools overcome many of the problems caused by under investment.
It has not been easy, but we have gradually begun to turn the corner. Primary school meals have increased and where secondary schools have been able to improve their dining rooms and keep prices low their numbers have also risen.
What Lansley doesn't understand is that the change is school food was never about "nagging" kids to improve their eating habits. It was always about providing good quality tasty nutritious food to show them that the tasty option was also the healthy option. Sadly the high cost of some school meals, the terrible queuing, the lack of time to eat them mean that school meal uptake hasn't increased as dramatically as I would like. The answer is though to overcome those obstacles - not to get a cheap headline criticising jamie Oliver.
Have a look at how one London borough is changing teenage eating habits at lunchtime
Ofsted have been carrying out an special inspection of school food in the UK.They have visited a group of schools to check schools are meeting the nutritional standards for meals and to look at school food policies. They have talked to children about the whole lunch time experience.
The good news is that most schools are well on their way to meeting the standards. However they did identify some primary schools that were struggling to provide enough fruit in the menus and issues with some secondary schools offering fried food too often. So not perfect but a dramatic improvement on the quality of food from 5 years ago.
Ofsted have picked up on the problem of costs of school meals and healthy packed lunches. From their discussions with parents it became clear that it was not lack of knowledge about healthy eating that led to unhealthy packed lunches but cost and access to fresh fruit and veg in local shops.
This report highlights the plight of low income working families who are unable to afford a school meal. This is yet more evidence than the government should act to restore eligibility for families under the poverty line.(It is not too late to email Mr Gove over this - click here.)
Not surprisingly some parts of the press have chosen to ignore the main finding of this report and concentrate on "Nosy parkers spy on kids packed lunches" angle. However there is some serious consideration of the report in the Independent and The Guardian.
This Ofsted report is yet another piece of evidence alongside School Food Trust research that supports the need for subsidising school meals. The long term savings to the NHS mean this would be a wise investment.
You can download a copy of the report here
This absolutely beggars belief. According to a leaked memo that Channel 4 news have seen the government is looking at how they can take money away from free school meals to fund their "free schools". You can read the channel4 report here
These are very dangerous times.
We will be writing to Mr Gove. Will post his response.
