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School Meals in Scotland 2007
05/06/2007
This statistical publication notice provides results of the latest annual survey of school meals. The information was collected in early 2007 from all publicly funded schools in Scotland.
The publication also includes information about total local authority expenditure on meals during the year 2005-06, the year prior to the survey.
The main findings for 2007 are:
School meals (free or purchased)
- Of those pupils present on the survey day, 46 per cent took a meal supplied by the school, the same as in 2006 (Table 3). The percentage taking meals in secondary schools has increased since 2006, but this is offset by decreases in the primary and special sectors. At local authority level there was a wide variation in increases and decreases in the secondary sector, with the implementation of Hungry for Success given as a reason for both increases and decreases in uptake.
- The percentage of pupils taking meals was generally higher in schools in more rural areas (Table 5). In primary, schools with higher levels of deprivation had higher percentages taking meals, whereas in secondary there was no significant relationship (table 6).
Free school meals
- The percentage of pupils registered for free school meals was 16.0 per cent, down from 16.4 per cent in 2006 (Table 1). 17.1 per cent of pupils were identified by local authorities as being entitled to free school meals. Local authorities continue to vary widely in their ability to identify pupils who are entitled but have not registered their entitlement.
- Of those identified as entitled, 67.5 per cent took a free school meal on the survey day, down from 68.5 per cent in 2006. This equates to 11.5 per cent of all pupils (Table 2).
- Fifty-three per cent of mainstream schools had an anonymised system for free school meals receipt, up from 44 per cent in 2006 (Tables 20 and 21). Four out of five secondaries and half of primaries had such systems.
Healthy eating
- All local authority primary schools are required to provide free fresh fruit to P1 and P2 pupils. Fifty-five per cent of local authority primary schools reported also having extended the free fruit scheme in some way, such as to pupils in other stages or by providing it more often. Ninety per cent of all schools had free fresh chilled water available to pupils and staff at all times.
(Tables 20, 21 and 22).
- Thirty-seven per cent of all schools provided a breakfast club service to pupils, up from 33 per cent in 2006. Provision of breakfast clubs was more common in those schools with higher rates of deprivation (Table 7).
Annual data from previous financial year
- Overall in 2005-06, local authorities spent £105 million preparing over 56.4 million meals, compared to £101 million spent preparing 57.5 million meals in 2004-05 (Table 25) and in keeping with the results of last year's survey. A further £3.3 million was spent on school milk programmes (Table 27).
- The total number of free meals taken in 2005-06 was 17.1 million, similar to in 2004-05 (table 25).
BACKGROUND NOTES
1. There were 24 schools (with an average of 25 pupils each1) in which no pupils took a school meal. These are excluded from tables 1-18 in the publication, as it is assumed that these schools do not provide school meals. These schools were included in some columns of Table 19 .
2. Entitled/registered figures for special schools may be unreliable, as all pupils in the school may be automatically given free school meals. They have therefore not been published in the local authority tables.
3. Figures for primary schools may include some nursery school pupils attending primary schools.
4. The rural/ urban classifications in Table 5 are defined as follows:
* Large urban areas - settlements over 125,000 population. This covers the city conurbations of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee.
* Other urban areas - settlements of 10,000 to 125,000 people.
* Accessible small towns - settlements of between 3,000 and 10,000 people and within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more.
* Small remote towns - settlements of between 3,000 and 10,000 people, who are not within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more people.
* Accessible rural areas - settlements of less than 3,000 people and within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more people
* Remote rural areas - settlements of less than 3,000 people who are not within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more people.
5. The information in this publication is used for benchmarking performance, and is used in calculating the distribution of grant support to local authorities. Registration for free school meals is widely used as an indicator of deprivation, which can be seen to be linked to attainment levels, attendance rates etc. Tables 11, 12, 17 and 18 are National Priority indicators.
Entitlement and registration
6. Local Authorities are issued with agreed guidance to allow for a figure to be given for those pupils whom they understand to be entitled to free school meals but who are not registered as such on their systems. This survey also shows the number of pupils actually registered. Some authorities returned the same number of pupils registered as entitled (generally those showing 100 per cent in the third column of tables 9 and 15). The Scottish Executive is working with local authorities to develop good practice to ensure that those eligible for free school meal entitlement are registered.
7. Pupils entitled to free school meals are those within families who receive Income Support (IS) or Income-based Job Seekers Allowance (IBJSA). Those within families who receive support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 may also be entitled. Children who receive IS or IBJSA in their own right are also entitled to receive free school meals. Also entitled are children whose parents or carers receive Child Tax Credit, do not receive Working Tax Credit and have an annual income (as assessed by the Inland Revenue) of below £14,155.
Healthy eating
8. This publication also gives information on the Executive's healthy eating campaign. Ministers accepted all of the recommendations in the report of the Expert Panel on School Meals. This was set up to improve the provision, presentation and nutrition of school meals and increase take up. Amongst other measures, standalone nutrient standards have been issued to authorities. The Executive has also provided detailed guidance on implementing the Panel's recommendations and setting up a free fruit scheme. The three aspects of this initiative which were measured in the survey are:
* Anonymised system: whether there is a system in place (e.g. a swipe card
system) that ensures that recipients of free school meals remain anonymous.
* Drinking water: whether there is an adequate supply of readily accessible drinking water for pupils and staff, which is free, fresh and chilled, provided with drinking cups, glasses or drinking bottles both within the dining room and available during periods of learning.
* Free fruit: whether the school has extended the national scheme requiring P1 and P2 pupils to be supplied with free fruit at least three times per week, in addition to any fruit provided as part of the lunch.
9. The survey guidance regarding the provision of drinking water was tightened in 2006 as we became aware schools were counting themselves as providing when not all criteria were being met. For example, chilled water was available but not during the lesson. An apparent fall was seen in 2006 in the proportion of schools providing drinking water. This proportion has remained the same in 2007, indicating that the fall in 2006 was most likely due to the change in guidance.
10. For the second time this publication provides information on the provision of breakfast clubs in schools. For the purpose of the census, breakfast clubs were defined as; "supervised provision of food to some or all pupils before the beginning of the school day, whether provided free or at a charge". Expenditure Data
11. Data relates to the previous financial year, and hence may give different messages from the survey data. The finance data more closely relates to the results of the 2006 survey.
12. Caution should be taken if making inter-authority comparisons of the expenditure data as each authority may include/exclude different elements of expenditure in their figures.
13. The figures represent the gross expenditure (i.e. not taking account of any income from school meals).
14. Figures are calculated based on audited data returned by the 32 Scottish local authorities. Blanket guidance for definitions of what should be recorded under "gross expenditure on school meals" is not provided. We expect that in some cases the figures do not include some elements of operating costs (property/admin costs etc.)
15. STOs (Significant Trading Operations) or PPP contracts may also be a factor. In some authorities the meals service will be managed by STOs, which means that the only cost that the education department incurs is the cost of free meals which is billed to the education department by the caterers.
General
16. This is a National Statistics publication. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from any political interference.
17. The following symbol is used in the publication:
- = zero or rounds to zero
. . = not available
n/a = not applicable
* = where numbers involve fewer than five individuals. Where this figure then contributes to the total, it has been assumed throughout that this figure is 3.
18. This report was edited by: Mal Cooke, Rosie Telford, Carrie Graham.
19. All tables are available at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00587
Enquiries or comments
20. Public enquiries (non-media) about the information contained in this News Release should be addressed to Mal Cooke, Pupil, Teacher and School Statistics, Scottish Executive, Area 1B (mail 27), Victoria Quay, Edinburgh EH6 6QQ. Telephone 0131 244 0300 or email school.stats@scotland.gsi.gov.uk