Contact: Terry Rath, 01962 846457, [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 This is the final year of the implementation of the agreed School Meals Strategy 2005-2008. This Strategy is attached as Appendix II. The report concludes that the Strategy is having a positive impact on the take up of school meals in Hampshire and should continue to be implemented.

2 Recommendations

That the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services (Education) agrees:

a) that in line with the agreed School Meals Strategy, the price of school meals is increased to £1.90 per meal from April 2008 to reflect the continued improved food and nutritional content of the meal and the cost pressures on the catering services.

3 Background

3.1 The County Council's School Meals Strategy was developed in response to the introduction by the Government from September 2005 of Grant 5A, the Targeted School Meals Grant. The Strategy sets out how the grant will be used across the years 2005-2008 to support the introduction of higher nutritional standards in school meals, additional staff training and some limited capital expenditure on school kitchens. The food and nutritional content of school meals will continue to improve during 2008-9 to meet national standards set out in the Government publication "Turning the Tables : Transforming School Food" which was published in September 2005. Under the Education and Inspections Act 2006 new nutritional standards for food in schools have had statutory force from March 2007.

3.2 Following the introduction of the new nutritional standards national surveys have highlighted a decline in the number of meals served in schools. In contrast, in Hampshire, the county's catering organisation, HC3S, has seen an increase in the number of meals served. In the Autumn Term 2007 they are running at about 5% above the level of last year at a similar time. Although this reversal of the trend is very welcome it means that school meal numbers are still significantly lower than the levels achieved in earlier years of this decade.

3.3 As part of the strategy new kitchens were provided to supply hot food at ten schools previously relying on serveries. This element of the strategy does appear to have had an impact on meal numbers with an overall annual increase of some 9% in these schools and with one school increasing its meal numbers by nearly 60%. The list of schools where kitchens were provided forms Appendix I of this report.

4 New DCSF Grant

4.1 From April 2008 the DCSF have introduced the Schools Lunch Grant. Under the grant the County Council has been allocated £1,771,767 for the next three years. The DCSF have stressed that the Schools Lunch Grant 2008-2011 is a new grant with new conditions and is not a continuation of the Targeted School Meals/School Meals Grants available between 2005-2008. The grant is being provided to support school catering services and to moderate price increases until school meal take up is increased. The Government have recognised that changing the eating habits of children is a long process. This grant can only therefore be used for any of the direct costs of a school meal. In addition, the Government expects the funding to be treated as additional to current levels of expenditure on providing school meals and not simply used to replace funding already provided by the local authority or school. In Hampshire, no funding is provided directly to caterers to subsidise the cost of school meals.

4.2 A proposal to allocate the Schools Lunch Grant by formula to catering providers based on the number of free school meals provided plus 25% of the schools number on roll was agreed by the Schools Forum when it met on 11 December 2007. The free school meal and pupil numbers will be those collected in January 2008.

5 Pressure on catering budgets

5.1 The decline in meal numbers, despite the more recent increases in Hampshire, has put pressure on the caterers' budgets. In addition, in recent months there has been higher than expected increases in basic food costs, partially as a result of bad weather and poor harvests in the UK and in other food producing regions, combined with increased levels of demand particularly from the far east. Overall it is expected that food costs will increase by 10% to January 2008 with the potential for a further 6-8% increase during the year.

5.2 In addition, particular circumstances have also affected HC3S. It is expected the loss of "free" duty meals for lunchtime supervisors will result in the loss of some £0.75 million income to HC3S in 2008/09. Schools benefit by the removal of this cost from their budgets. Other caterers will also be affected as they may face increases in the minimum wage and holiday entitlements.

6 School Meal Prices

6.1 The School Meals Strategy 2005-2008 proposed a school meal price in April 2008 of £1.90, an increase of 5.5% on the current price of £1.80. This was on the basis of the increase in the food content that had already been included within the school meal to meet the new nutritional standards. It took into account anticipated support for food content of school meals from the Targeted School Meal Grant. The new School Lunch Grant continues to provide support for the food content of school meals and also additional funding. However, as paragraphs 5.1 and 5.2 of this report point out, there are new cost pressures on school caterers' budgets for which the additional funding from the School Lunch Grant 2008-2011 will be needed. It is therefore proposed that the planned increase in the school meal price to £1.90 from £1.80 be implemented. The gradual increase in the meal price should mean that parents and caterers will be more able to adjust when there is no, or reduced, grant funding.

6.2 Neighbouring local authorities have a range of prices for school meals. Wiltshire are expecting to charge £1.95 from April 2008 and Surrey £1.85 from September 2008. Dorset will probably be charging £2.00 and West Sussex parents already pay £2.00 for a school meal. The proposed Hampshire charge of £1.90 from April 2008 is well within this range. Prices charged by the different authorities will reflect local costs as well as progress in implementing the new nutritional standards.

7 Legal implications

7.1 None

8 Financial implications

8.1 These are set out in the School Meals Strategy 2005-8 and the body of this report.

9 Personnel implications

9.1 None.

10 Impact assessment

10.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of the report and no adverse impact has been identified.

11 Crime prevention issues

11.1 There are no crime prevention issues.

12 Views of the Local County Councillor

12.1 This is a countywide proposal.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB: the list excludes

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

None.