6. Monitoring school meals
formulate how they were going to respond to this aspect of inspection. Only one
mentioned that they believed that this was a statutory duty.
I understand from the Ofsted inspection of the authority, we are about to be Ofsteded in the
near future, I understand that it should be monitored by the local authority.
6.6 Another officer perceived monitoring as an issue that had not been thought through
sufficiently. Within her LEA, there was on going discussion about responsibility for this
and what part the LEA would play in the future.
LEA monitoring with Service Level Agreements
6.7 A number of LEAs had established monitoring procedures, developed as part of Service
Level Agreements (SLAs) with schools and available to all schools within the authority.
LEAs that offered SLAs to schools outside the main contract reported take up of
agreements of between 60-80%. One LEA reported take-up by all but one school in its
area.
6.8 These agreements were offered to schools at a fixed annual fee and provided support
for schools over a range of services. One LEA, which provided agreements to nine of
the 15 schools outside the main contract, offered a package which covered food safety
policies, risk assessments for food safety and health and safety, environmental health
liaison, quality audits, menu development and pricing. It audited nutritional guidelines
and provided training and refresher training in food hygiene. All schools, whether in the
agreement or not, were offered training opportunities, information on price rises and on
any statutory or legal obligations.
6.9 One Client Services Officer described the main value to schools of the SLA (taken up
by 14 out of 18 schools) was to ensure that contractors complied with the specification
of their contract. Schools frequently rang to check if any changes their contractor was
proposing or implementing were correct. The team were able to advise and, if
necessary, to take up with the contractor any issues such as changes to the menu which
might conflict with nutritional standards. The role as independent advisor and
negotiator was felt to be especially valuable.
We come in and monitor the contractor, prepare the report, attend any meetings to raise issues
with school and contractor, assess their equipment as all but one school has entered into a
contract with the contractor that will purchase equipment for them. We prioritise what we
think they should be buying. We give them advice and support in their negotiations.
6.10 Most case study schools that signed up to SLAs were very satisfied with the services
offered. Schools were relieved of dealing with monitoring the nutritional standards or
handling complaints about the provision.
We wouldn’t know what to look for. There are lots of experts out there in the authority and
we do tend to buy in most of the services because it leaves us time to deal with the things we
know and that we’re good at. And it gives you another view in school and that’s very
important
The school valued the monitoring service because it not only checked on issues like the
quality of the cooking oil and changes to recipes, it also gave advice on introducing new
ranges of foods and improving the healthiness of the meals. It also provided the school
with marketing ideas based on the successful experiences of other schools.
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