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The view from Westminster

3rd April 2009, 3:48pm

The three main political parties were represented at the summit, with MPS David Laws, Tim Loughton and Frank Dobson offering their take on the big school food debate. David Foad reports.

Flexibility rather than rigid enforcement is broadly backed by all three of the main parties. They support the aim of the new nutrient-based standards, which is to improve the health of the nation's youngsters, but they question the level of detail in the standards and the timetable for their introduction.

Liberal Democrat MP David Laws, shadow secretary of state for children, schools and families, said school feeding was central to getting education right. Young people should have a decent meal at least once a day.

"We all agree with the Government aim to improve the quality of school meals and food-based standards have been a particularly good thing. However, the new standards have gone hand-in-hand with a drop in meal uptake.

"There's now a real risk that the nutrientbased standards will further drive youngsters away from school food.

"It's pointless if we have wonderful school meals that nobody is eating."

He pointed out that England and Wales are moving very quickly from one of the most loosely-regulated school meals services to one of the tightest.

"I think they should be reviewed and not introduced in their present form."

He supported the idea of a cross-party delegation working with LACA to discuss amending the standards.

Laws said money was likely to be scarce in the short-term and while the idea of free school meals for all would be a great way of changing the eating habits of the young, it was unaffordable.

"I am not sure it's where my priorities would be. Improved kitchen facilities are needed and continued funding beyond 2001 will be needed for the service.

"But I do want the current free school meal provision extended because half the children officially classified as living in poverty don't qualify for free meals.

He said he also wanted the whole culture of school meals to change. This would mean longer lunch breaks, greater use of on-site policies and an expectation that pupils would sit down together to eat in a social environment.

Conservative Tim Loughton, shadow minister for children, schools and families, agreed that school meals was not a 'bolt-on' to education but a key element of it.

He, too, supported a cross-party debate on the issues.

"We eat about the same number of calories as people 50 years ago, but expend fewer. We risk becoming the waddling snack kings of Europe.

"We should not be hung up on meeting highly restrictive standards that children won't eat," he said.

It was important to get children visiting school dining rooms and eating the food, and he stressed the importance of linking meals to on-site policies.

"Should we be spending a lot of resources on computer programmes rather than concentrating on getting attractive meals that children will eat."

He feared a future situation in which "canteens are empty, staff twiddle their thumbs and children are running riot in classrooms fired up on E-numbers from Stavros's Kebab Heaven.

"We should reclaim the lunch hour and reclaim the afternoon for useful teaching," he said.

Labour MP Frank Dobson, a former Health Secretary, said he was not at the summit representing the Government or the Labour party "just myself".

"It's difficult to exaggerate the importance of school meals, it's the best targeted piece of Government spending that there is."

He said that the pioneer of school feeding in the early years of the 20th century had memorably stated that 'a hungry child cannot learn'.

"And that's still true today."

He pointed out that when nutritional standards were abandoned in the 1980s meal uptake dropped.

"So there's historical evidence of a link between standards and meal sales."

"The nutrient-based standards are a good start. If a third of your members can meet them, I have to ask what about the other two thirds? Why can't they. We must push on," he urged.

But he did concede that there may be one or two nutrient standards that could be tweaked and that the timetable for implementation was very strict.