Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk 24 August 2019 | The Grocer | 27talking about giving them the opportunity to
say: ‘look at all this eff ort we’re putting into
this because we value it, we think it’s impor-
tant, we want our children to be ready to learn’.
Right now they have to go to NGOs to get any sort of
recognition or certifi cate, such as the Soil Association’s
Food for Life scheme or Hea lt hy School London for t he
work they do to keep their children healthy.”
Ofsted insists healthy eating has been included in
its handbook, but says it isn’t responsible for checking
that children are eating healthily and doesn’t moni-
tor this in its inspections. It also concluded, in its July
2018 ‘obesity, healthy eating and physical activity in
primary schools’ report, that choices leading to obesity
are ‘more likely to be happening outside school hours’.
But Wood believes Ofsted is missing the point. “They
ke e p com i ng b ac k w it h t h i s l i ne: ‘ I n s p e c tor s c a n’t judge
the quality of the food on the plate’. We have never
asked them to do that.”
Instead, what they can do is ask who within the
school has responsibility for the statutory requirement
of the school food standards.
“Governors have the responsibility for statutory
requirements. I’m a school governor and every time
there’s an inspection we get asked: ‘who leads on the
statutory requirement on safeguarding, who leads on
pupil premium?’, but nobody ever asks [that] in main-
tained schools .”
The responsibility for tackling childhood obesity lies
with everyone, argues Bidfood nutritionist Samantha
Elliott, and Ofsted cannot just pass the buck. “There’s
no one simple solution and no quick fi x, but we have
to work together.”
People “want to see the change too”, she adds. And
this is where public engagement from the government
comes in. “It is a real struggle for schools to be able to
provide healthy and nutritious food that tastes great,
is on a budget, and that children will eat.
“Juggling all of those things is quite a challenge. The
government needs to guide schools on how to do this,
and I hope part of the update to the school food stand-
ards will build on what they’ve already done.”
At the end of May, chief medical offi cer Professor
Sally Davies kicked off a re v ie w i nto wh at more cou ld b e
done to meet the government’s goal, in the childhood
obesity plan, of halving childhood obesity by 2030. A
great deal of her focus has been placed on encouraging
parents to buy healthier food and drink for their chil-
dren by making it cheaper and easier to buy, subsidis-
ing it through taxes on unhealthy food.
However, Wood suggests Davies needs to pay atten-
tion to the calls from think tanks and NGOs pointing to
schools needing to play a larger part. “Obesity is every-
body’s problem,” she says. “Absolutely, schools don’t
off er a silver bullet. But they have a part to play.”
Can local authority
trailblazers fi ght
obesity problem?
Infl uenced by the success
of a radical programme
in Amsterdam, the
government has launched
a ‘trailblazer’ scheme
with fi ve local authorities
in the UK to test new
measures to combat
obesity at local level.
The Dutch capital
managed to slash the
rate of overweight and
obese children by more
than 10% aft er bringing
in a scheme in 2012,
which included ramping
up opportunities for
aft er-school exercise,
promoting healthier diets
and banning junk food
sponsorship.
So in June the
government awarded
fi ve councils in Bradford,
Blackburn/Darwen,
Nottinghamshire,
Lewisham and
Birmingham £100,000
a year, over a three-year
period.
They will pilot a range
of measures including
restricting out-of-home
HFSS advertising (a move
already controversially
pioneered by LondonMayor Sadiq Khan), using
the planning system
to restrict junk food
shops near schools and
improving accessibility
and aff ordability of
healthier foods.
So far the programme
includes a scheme
by Birmingham City
Council to off er health,
food, nutrition and
physical-activity focused
apprenticeships for 15 to
19-year-olds in deprived
areas, where obesity
rates are the highest.
The council will also
create a local metric, the
‘Birmingham Basket’, to
capture local consumer
habits.
Bradford will partner
with local mosques to
support South Asian
children – who are at a
greater risk of obesity.
Blackburn and Darwen
council will work with
local restaurants and
takeaways to improve
menus and incentivise
healthier options.
“The government
support for these
trailblazers is welcome
but long overdue,” says
Ben Reynolds, deputy
CEO of food and farming
charity Sustain.But Reynolds is
sceptical about the
eff ectiveness of the
programme. “Local
authorities currently
have very limited powers
to meaningfully tackle
the child obesity crisis,
and I suspect these
trailblazers are just as
likely to show up the
limits of these powers as
they will pioneer as yet
undiscovered ways of
tackling the problem.
“Yes, these areas have
been given money – very
little at that, but no extra
powers. It would be more
trailblazing if they were
trialling derogations of
powers from national
policy, on issues such
as junk food advertising
restrictions or licensing
of hot food takeaways
that if successful could be
rolled out in other local
areas.
“And what
commitments have
government made to roll
out learning from these
trailblazers? To have
a meaningful impact
they need to commit to
rolling out, and crucially
funding, any good
practice from this across
the whole UK.”“Government should
not be leaving
schools to self-regulateon school food”