Free school meals: Ready, steady, build a kitchen
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Version 0 of 1. A surprisingly rare thing is just about to land on the headteacher's desk in every infant and primary school in England: a signed letter from the education secretary, Michael Gove, and the schools minister, David Laws. Short of stamping it with sealing wax and delivering it on a velvet pillow, the government could hardly make it clearer that something important is afoot. The letter contains confirmation that, from September, the government will fund free school meals for every infant. For some headteachers, this will be the point at which they realise that the policy – announced by Nick Clegg last September – wasn't just a bit of party conference showboating. It is actually going to happen. As one of the authors of the School Food Plan, which recommended the policy, I am delighted. My co-author, John Vincent, and I visited more than 60 schools while writing the plan and saw what a huge difference extending free school meals can make. Thanks to the last Labour government – which ran pilot schemes in County Durham and Newham – we have clear evidence of the benefits. Nutritional intake improved dramatically, as pupils swapped packed lunches for hot meals. Academically, too, children at these schools quickly moved ahead of their peers elsewhere, by almost a term. The policy was shown to do more to improve literacy levels than the nationwide introduction of a compulsory "literacy hour" in 1998. Intriguingly, the pupils whose results improved most markedly were the poorest. Although they were often already eligible for free school meals, and therefore had nothing material to gain from the policy, they appear to have benefited hugely from the removal of social stigma, and an improvement in atmosphere. "Our children did better in exams," one County Durham head told us. "At the same time, the culture in the school improved in subtle but important ways. It's been great to avoid the old them-and-us divisions of the packed lunch kids going off to eat separately from the school lunch children." Most headteachers understand that well-fed, happy children make better pupils. However, as reported recently in Education Guardian, many are currently nervous about managing the nuts and bolts. Already busy preparing for the launch of the new national curriculum in September, they now need simultaneously to transform their food service. In some cases there are logistical problems. Kitchen staff will have to adjust to preparing meals on a scale many have never previously experienced. Schools may have to extend their lunch hour. Some will have to change the way they serve the food: introducing more serving points, perhaps, to manage queues. Even apparently simple things, such as finding space to store the extra food, might prove tricky. But take heart. It can be done. More to the point, it has been done. Alison Young managed the pilot project for Durham county council: she and her team had 12 weeks in which to prepare every school to provide free school meals for all their primary pupils (not just those up to year 2). "Six of those weeks were during school summer holidays, which made life incredibly difficult," she remembers. But they delivered on time. "This time round, eight months gives better planning time," she says. "Many people feel that schools today cannot cope logistically with higher take-up. It's not true. "We had to deal with all of the concerns that people are raising now. We showed that the kitchens, dining halls and teams can deliver 85% take-up, and probably more." Two particular challenges will crop up a lot. The first is the requirement for some schools to improve their kitchen, or even build one from scratch. The government has announced a £150m capital fund to pay for this, and Laws will be writing to local authorities shortly with details of how the money should be allocated. Schools using an external caterer may find that they are prepared to invest more on top of this. It is worth their while to get the kitchen facilities right: they will be cooking more, getting paid more, and will benefit from economies of scale. In many cases, schools may be able to renegotiate their contracts so that they share in the improved economics that this expanded lunch service brings. Some schools, worried about their lack of kitchen and dining facilities, have asked whether they can offer pupils a sandwich and a yoghurt instead of a hot meal. This is something that the National Association of Headteachers has also asked. We believe it would be a bad idea. First, it would be much less popular and take-up would be lower, meaning that you would get neither the advantages of scale nor the benefits of bringing everyone together in a busy, vibrant dining area. Second, it would be nowhere near as nutritious. In September, a new set of standards for school food will be rolled out across England. It will be next to impossible for schools to meet these standards by providing a packed lunch every day. So headteachers might find themselves belatedly having to scramble to get a kitchen ready after all. The second most common logistical problem will be that of serving a much larger number of children in the existing space. Every school we have visited – in the pilot areas and elsewhere – that has significantly increased the number of children eating in a small area has done it by staggering lunchtimes. Some schools have up to four sittings. According to Young, good preparation and a cool head can overcome all difficulties. Her essential rules include: keeping the menus simple (meals will be easier to prepare and children will choose more quickly, reducing queues); not panicking when there are teething problems (things will settle down in the first few weeks of term); planning for the inevitable increase in specific dietary requests; communicating clearly with everyone involved, from cooks and finance officers to pupils and their parents. But the single most important indicator of success, she says, is the enthusiasm of the headteacher – doing this well requires leadership from the top. Headteachers are not expected to manage all this on their own. The government is tendering for experts to go into schools and help them. The School Food Trust – now the Children's Food Trust – provided this help during the national pilots. The School Food Plan will help, too: we are preparing a section on our website where schools can go to compare notes on the solutions they have found to problems. There is already a Q&A covering headteachers' questions. This is the rarest of things: a political idea that has true cross-party support. A Labour idea – it was Ed Balls who commissioned the pilot schemes – taken up by the Tories. Michael Gove commissioned the School Food Plan and trenchantly supported our recommendation for universal free meals. The Lib Dems succeeded in getting the budget agreed. With such broad support, there is a good chance it might even be extended. There are already discussions going on about providing free meals for children all through primary school. This policy has the potential to transform the culture of our primary schools and the lives of our children in a way that only those who have seen it in action can truly appreciate. As one child at Sheringham primary in Newham put it: "There used to be a lot more fights. Everyone gets on now because we all sit together and eat together." • Henry Dimbleby is co-author, with John Vincent, of the School Food Plan. 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