Government announces welcome school food policy reforms

The commitments, which increase accountability for both food served in school as well as the wider education linked to food, follow months of campaigning from Sustain members and allies on the School Food Review working group. Together School Food Matters, BiteBack 2030 and The Food Foundation have pushed for change by focusing on accountability; a mechanism for schools to report on embedding a whole school approach to food, to ensure quality provision and drive take-up of school meals so no child misses out on good nutrition.

Sustain welcomes these announcements, with our Children's Food Campaign having previously coordinated drives to improve monitoring of school food standards. It will also be good news for the headteachers who signed the joint letter to Nadim Zahawi last week, calling for stronger mechanisms to ensure the quality and eligibility of school food.

However, the commitments to improve accountability cover just one of the five priority areas highlighted by the School Food Review Group. With the government's white paper response to Dimbleby's National Food Strategy on food expected soon, Sustain and the Children's Food Campaign will continue to work with the group to push for the other four to feature, including the extension of entitlement, removing barriers to uptake of school meals, simplifying funding, and improving procurement.

The Government makes the following four commitments in the Levelling Up paper:

Schools will be encouraged to publish statements on the arrangements for their ‘whole school approach’ to school food. This will become mandatory when ‘schools can do this effectively’.
The Department for Education (DfE) will be working with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to pilot measures with local authorities to ensure greater compliance with the school food standards.
Training and support, worth £200,000, will be provided for school governors on the role they should take to support a whole school approach to food.
Funding of £5 million to support food teachers so that every child can leave school knowing how to cook six recipes.

News • Children's Food Campaign

Children's Food Campaign: Campaigning for policy changes so that all children can easily eat sustainable and healthy food.

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Fran Bernhardt
Commercial Determinants Coordinator

Fran Bernhardt is Sustain’s Commercial Determinants Coordinator. She specialises in supporting governments to champion children’s health by switching the spotlight away from unhealthy foods and drinks across their advertising estates.

In 2018, she was seconded into the Mayor of London’s team where she advised on writing and implementing the policy across the Transport for London network.

Since then she has written Sustain’s Healthier Food Advertising Policy Toolkit and supported a further 21 English local authorities to successfully introduce policies including the UK’s first ever comprehensive commercial baby food advertising restriction in line with World Health Organization recommendations.

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