Welsh Food Alliance Cynghrair Bwyd Cymru

We submitted evidence to this review, which influenced our evidence to the Assembly ‘Food in Schools’ Working Group. If there is to be a transformation in school meals there needs to be a co-ordinated approach and co-operation through an All Wales Catering Advisory Service – which we proposed four years ago. Our evidence included: children and young people, the national curriculum, growing malnutrition in an ageing population and food policy.

We proposed a Food and Health Policy Council, with public engagement for which changed attitudes and behaviour is required. This could improve food consumption and co-ordination between different services – the responsibility of different tiers and functions of government. The extent of change will require some extra finance and a public sector catering co-ordinator located inside the Assembly Government.

This requires leadership to drive change and Wales wide collaboration in developing common computerised management information systems, economies of scale, food safety compliance, workforce planning and training, avoidance of duplication, and common performance criteria. This could help ensure the provision of equitable and efficient public sector catering service across Wales that will provide better value for money.

In recent months WFA ran six timely and free public workshops on the theme of ‘Innovation and the New Public Service’. Many thanks to the Open University in Wales and all participants who created this learning resource, which included inviting the elder's experience, what matters most to them and their practical solutions. We hope these events supported responses to various government consultations.

As we go to press, this meeting, on 18th October, is jointly organised by the Welsh Food Alliance and the Regeneration Institute, Cardiff University. The main speaker is Dr Martin Carahar, Reader in Food and Health Policy, City University, London. A ‘Food Question Time’ will follow with a panel chaired by Prof Kevin Morgan, including Glyn Davies AM, Dr Brian Gibbons AM, Rhodri Griffiths - Green Party, Helen Mary Jones AM, and Jenny Randerson AM. Prior to the Welsh Assembly elections, it is hoped that practical public health measures will be included in the manifestos of all Welsh political parties.

The Beecham Review ‘Beyond the Boundaries’ established common principles for citizen centred, efficient and accountable services. At the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) July Board meeting in Cardiff, we asked FSA to respond to the Beecham Review. In October UK FSA proposed ten consumer panels. How will the Welsh Panel be selected? We hope this relates well to the Assembly Government policy of public participation.

Questions for FSA and future panel members. Role:

• how can I represent the views of the public?
• What am I doing here?
• Why do they want me?

Contribution:

• what authority, expertise and experience - if any - do I bring?
• Representation who am I representing when I speak – just myself or, does this include engagement with local groups?

Accountability:

• how can we as consumers be confident that it is working? And so…
• How can people be empowered to engage in this deliberative democracy?

All credit is due to Jamie Oliver for raising the issue of food in schools and the effect of low-grade food from a nutritional standpoint to school pupils. This has been driven by changes in legislation and cost cutting over the past twenty-five years.

However, is it a step too far to move from there to the immediate wholesale catering changes advocated? This is bound to have some repercussions. We see it in the withdrawal of pupils from school meals whose parents take on board TV messages about unwholesome food provided without properly checking out what is provided locally.

The result is a lower take up of school meals until the service becomes overwhelmed with overhead costs. Some schools working on the principle of gradually providing wholesome freshly cooked food find that hard work over many years are undermined. Or we find strong minded women concerned that their children are opting out of their new diet (probably very different to that provided at home) and deciding to provide food passed through the railings of schools.

If this is the feeling does it not show that we are working against the principles advocated in the Assembly policy ‘Making the Connections’ (and Beecham) about participation in decision making that any project requires the early involvement of those concerned that will eventually bring about success? We hope WFA have contributed to this through four National Youth Food Assemblies.

Does it also point to the role that education plays in the whole process? Pupils need to know practical skills, with underpinning knowledge and understanding of the importance of nutrition for health within the national curriculum. This will then last a lifetime.

This was one of the first major issues championed by the Welsh Food Alliance in 1999, following questions posed by food teachers. A working group was set up, met within days with redrafted national curriculum orders that could easily have been accepted by government six years ago. We were not successful, but have since made it a cardinal principle of our strategy.

The opportunity arises again for the National Assembly for Wales to vote for necessary change in future Welsh legislation, to take effect in September 2008, or do we wait until 2014? By empowering pupils with knowledge from pre-school to A level they will then be able to decide for themselves and we hope make the right choices.

Jamie Oliver certainly raised the profile of school meals, but success demands involvement, adequate finance from central and local government, parent and pupil support, workforce training, an All Wales Catering Advisory Service, local and national Food Policy Councils and a lasting awareness of how todays action brings about the necessary changes within the national curriculum.

It is likely that the Welsh national curriculum review will strengthen skills. In anticipation of draft Assembly legislation to be consulted on January 2007, we have written to the Assembly making these points:

Can the review promote practical skills such as choosing, preparing and cooking food? It is essential that a framework exists to progress knowledge through each of the key stages to ensure that young people, and subsequently throughout life, understand the concept of eating healthily and have the ability to feed themselves and their future families.

If this initiative is to be successful it is essential that the following points are taken into consideration:

• Although the module may be short, the sessions should be long enough to cover preparing, cooking, clearing and evaluating thoroughly work undertaken

• That framework and resources are in place to promote the correct nutritional messages and the content of the course, including workforce education, planning and development

• This is an ideal opportunity for Wales to be innovative and lead the nation to a healthier lifestyle and in later years support people wishing to remain independent in their own homes

With the removal of such skills from the curriculum since 1992, parents may no longer have practical skills to transfer to their children. The state has a duty to intervene. This will require more than outside school activities. If uncertainty exists,we propose the Health, Finance and Education Ministers initiate a Health Impact Assessment.

In a damning report by the English Inspectorate Ofsted, published in March 2006, one of their many robust criticisms was that: ”there is a fundamental and so far unresolved dichotomy between teaching about food to develop skills for living and using food as a means to teach the objectives of design and technology”. A strong business lobby seeks to preserve ‘food technology’. The difficulty is the impossibility of increasing the time required to deliver ‘skills for living’ within the constraint of delivering Design & Technology.

Again their policy statement states that governments should take measures aimed at:

(a) Reviewing the curriculum relating to healthy eating to ensure that all young people leave school with the necessary knowledge and skills concerning the production, purchasing, preparation, cooking and enjoyment of healthy food.

(b) Reviewing the in-service training needs of all those involved in food production and food preparation and the associated curricula in schools (Council of Europe Appendix to ResAP 2005).