School Meals Service

Cumbria County Council has today issued the following statement regarding the ongoing consultation with schools across Cumbria regarding future provision of the school meal service.. 

County Councillor Joan Stocker, Cabinet spokesperson on Education says: 

"Cumbria County Council is continuing to explore new ways of providing the school meals service, the nutritional value of a school meal will not be compromised. We have a duty to provide a paid meal on request and a free meal to those that are eligible. Nutritional standards are defined by Central Government and under central management the Local Education Authority must use the same menu and price in every school. 

Delegation of the Meals Budget to secondary schools is compulsory and works very well. Delegation to primary and special schools is optional. School governors would determine the menu, the price charged to parents and the method of production, in that way the service can be tailored to meet local needs. 

If schools and parents wish to move towards a packed lunch option then the County Council would also be able to support the provision of a packed lunch. The contribution we would make would be consistent with the cost to the Council of subsidising the hot school meal option, ie the delegated budget to the school. It would then be up to individual schools and parents as to how much they would contribute and who they choose to provide that packed lunch. 

I am pleased with the work that is underway by Cumbria Contract Services to improve the school meals service and to try and encourage more children to take up a school meal to give them a good healthy nutritional meal in the middle of their school day. At present only 50% of children in the County take up school meals. 

At the moment the Council subsidises the school meals service by £2m. As part of the Council's drive to modernise it is necessary to look at the way this service is delivered. Only 40p of the £1.55 paid by parents for a school meal goes on the food itself, the majority goes towards overheads. 

An extensive consultation exercise is underway with all the schools affected and with trade union representatives looking at proposals for alternative methods of production to help make any future decisions. The formula budget per meal to be delegated in April 2004 has been determined by Cumbria County Council as sufficient to provide a good quality meal at every school. Officers are working with every individual school over the next few weeks to establish how each school will make provision after April 2004." 

County Councillor Tim Stoddard, Cabinet spokesperson for Cumbria Contract Services who currently provide school meals on behalf of the Council adds: 

"It is accepted that Cumbria Contract Services will need to make efficiency savings in order to protect the long-term future of the school meals service. At the same time we are encouraging more families to use the service. 

We will be able to assess the full impact of the changes once the current consultation is completed. It is too early to predict how that will affect staffing structures and individual jobs but of course we'll be looking to keep actual job losses to a minimum. We will also look carefully at the redeployment of staff and continue to consult with the Unions. 

We are committed to providing a high quality service, based on the individual choice of parents and schools, and a service that fully meets the requirements of Government and the County Council."