7. The impact of delegation on meals
C. They make all the decisions. We are going to serve this, this and this. It’s not like, see
what we want.
7.46 Year 10 pupils in that school felt that the caterer had accepted the stereotype of what
young people like to eat and did not provide enough choice. However, pupils
acknowledged that caterers could not afford to offer food that failed to sell.
A. You can get salad, pasta salad but seems to be more fast food than salad and sandwiches.
B. I don’t know of any fresh fruit or anything like that.
A. I think some people would have that, obviously not all of them. I think they have
generalised, teenage food, all the fatty foods they offer. And I think with the choice, people
would go for salads and fresh fruit and things like that.
C. If they put a lot of healthy food out and no one eats it then it’s just a waste of money.
7.47 One case study middle school demonstrated how the curriculum could be used for
consulting with the customer. This school, which had its own in-house provision, was
planning to involve pupils in menu planning as part of a Food Technology course
during the next academic year
7.48 Few schools surveyed parents formally for their views on meals, although most said that
parents were interested to see the catering on offer when they visited school. One
school used an audit questionnaire each year to find out what pupils and parents
wanted. The head teacher always arranged to collect pupils views first as she believed
parents views about meals could influence the responses of pupils.
7.49 Another head teacher lamented the lack of expectation on the part of parents.
Feedback relies on price. There is a very impoverished local perception about health and long
term health. Children are not fed particularly well and they have high carbohydrate meals.
That gives you a very different palate of experience than you would get in more middle class
areas where parents would be much more demanding of the school meals provision. I wish they
were more demanding and challenging and I do try to make them so, but the main issue is
always price rather than quality and I think the two should go hand in glove.
Summary
7.50 Overall, the study found it difficult to identify the specific impact of delegation alone on
meals provision as delegation of funding had coincided with initiatives to improve the
healthiness of food in schools and the reintroduction of nutritional standards.
7.51 However, at individual school level, there was evidence of schools and catering staff
taking the initiative to provide meals that conformed to nutritional standards whilst
appealing to paying customers. The shift of responsibility for meals to schools and
governing bodies had encouraged some schools, even those within central contracts, to
negotiate at individual school level for the supply of healthier meals.
7.52 The case studies provided some examples of schools that had opted to provide meals
that exceeded the nutritional standards required by law. These schools stressed the need
for a whole school approach to meals and to healthy eating, with emphasis on gaining
the support of pupils and parents to ensure a commercially sustainable meal service.
7.53 At the same time, delegation accentuated the need for the meals service in individual
schools to be commercially viable. This had been achieved, in some schools, by
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