Healthy Rating Scheme for Schools

On Friday 21 December on Channel 4 from 8–9pm, Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast will be taking a look at healthy school meals. The programme is the latest in a series of actions, devised in light of our recent collaborative research, calling on government to turn its proposal for a Healthy Rating Scheme for Schools into reality.

Last year I was the lead research advisor on a collaborative research project undertaken with the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation and a network of partners. We explored food education, food practices and culture in schools and the work led to key recommendations to government and to schools. You can read my policy briefing Tackling Childhood Obesity & Making Schools into Healthy Zones based on the research here and the full research report can be accessed here.

We found that the existing School Food Standards alone are not sufficient to support the provision and consumption of comprehensive healthy food choices, particularly in secondary schools. We recommended a comprehensive approach to developing schools as ‘healthy zones’ and as far as food is concerned this covers food provision as well as food education and food culture.

Unfortunately, there is something of a backlog of policy to implement in this space. The government had planned to introduce a ‘healthy rating scheme’ for primary schools last academic year. In guidance entitled, Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action (2016) the government set out its plan stating,

‘from September 2017, we will introduce a new voluntary healthy rating scheme for primary schools to recognise and encourage their contribution to preventing obesity by helping children to eat better and move more. This scheme will be taken into account during Ofsted inspections’.

Disappointingly, the development and introduction of the scheme has been repeatedly delayed with no clear timetable for action. I have recommended to government that the Healthy Rating Scheme for Schools should be implemented as soon as possible, ideally on a mandatory basis and covering both primary and secondary schools. I have argued that ensuring that children are able to put their health education into action depends on the provision of a healthy school environment, in terms of not just policies but also the physical environment, food and drink available, a positive whole school health ethos and modeling of individual health behaviours. I have further recommended that Health Education (HE) training should be made a mandatory part of all initial teacher training programmes, particularly in light of new government proposals on including HE as a compulsory subject. Professional Development should be available for current teachers with pedagogy as well as knowledge being key to successful delivery.

Overall, 2018 has proved an eventful year in terms of government policy proposals and consultations to address the health of the nation’s children. Over the last year we have seen government consultations on whether children should be prohibited from purchasing energy drinks and whether health education should be made compulsory in schools. On the latter, I recently wrote to the Department of Education welcoming the government’s consultation on Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) highlighting key issues, particularly related to the food education element of the proposals. I also responded to the consultation on energy drinks noting concerns highlighted by teachers, dentists and health practitioners regarding the harms caused by these drinks.

Policy discussions are also ongoing regarding the ways that current School Food Standards and the Ofsted inspection framework might be improved to better support health and well-being practices in schools, particularly around food. These discussions are welcome and I look forward to continuing to be involved in consultations in 2019.

In terms of funding, we have seen recent government guidance developed for the way that the Healthy Pupil Capital Fund (funded by the Soft Drinks Industry Levy) is allocated, how the Sports Premium for primary schools (to ‘make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE and sport’ offered) has been maintained, and in fact doubled in value. Since funding has not been ring-fenced specifically for cooking, nutrition and food education in schools this critical area currently remains under-resourced and under-valued. I hope that in 2019 government will address this state of affairs.

The government’s proposed Healthy Rating Scheme for schools offers a vital opportunity to think about how schools can demonstrate effectiveness, and share good practice in all these areas, especially in upholding the (new) School Food Standards, implementing the National Curriculum for Cooking and Nutrition (or equivalent) and HE and supporting the School Food Plan. A scheme similar to that for assessing and evidencing impact of the PE and Sport Premium could be used, allowing schools to determine their priorities, self-assess and evidence achievements via school websites, inspected by Ofsted.

In 2019 I would be delighted to see an effective Healthy Rating Scheme for Schools emerge, founded on the growing body of evidence of what might actually work in terms of supporting children’s health. I look forward to continuing to be a part of this process.

Dr Caroline Sarojini Hart, Fellow of the Institute of Health Promotion and Education (FIHPE)

For further enquiries please contact c.hart@sheffield.ac.uk