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Hungry for Success

Section 5 IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING STRATEGY

Implementation
Monitoring

Implementation

5.1 Continued commitment and effort on the part of local authorities is central to the successful implementation of our recommendations. CoSLA is currently working with local authorities as they move to become public health organisations and is therefore in a key position to assist them to take forward and manage the implementation of recommendations which transsect conventional boundaries between health, education and social justice. Improving school meals should not, therefore, be seen as an additional task for education authorities and schools. Rather it should be seen within the context of Our National Health A plan for action, A plan for change and the National Priorities for Education set by the Scottish Executive and approved by the Scottish Parliament in December 2000. The National Priorities are set out in Annex E. They are:

• Achievement and Attainment
• Framework for Learning
• Inclusion and Equality
• Values and Citizenship
• Learning for Life.

5.2 Responses from catering representatives and education directorate staff of local authorities, as well as from staff in schools visited during the course of our work, indicated considerable support for improving school meals provision. Successful implementation of the recommendations within this report will be vital in securing improvements. Education authorities will have a key role to play in ensuring that the nutrient standards, and related recommendations, are implemented within the proposed timescale.

5.3 The Scottish Executive and CoSLA are working together towards the achievement of sustainable investment and demonstrable improvements in the school estate, including buildings and other facilities. This work will provide opportunities to make improvements to dining rooms as described in this report.

5.4 The proposed timescale for implementation takes account of the fact that education authorities are currently at varying stages in improving school meals provision. Some authorities have undertaken considerable work in this area, while others will need more time to implement the proposed nutrient standards and related recommendations. We have already recommended in Section 3 that The Scottish Nutrient Standards for School Lunches should be in place in all special and primary schools by December 2004 and in all secondary schools by December 2006. A detailed implementation plan is set out in Annex F.

Training

5.5 Training is a key element of effective implementation. We recommend that all school catering and dining room supervisory staff should undertake appropriate training to ensure effective management of the school lunch service. For example the Scottish Executive, in partnership with the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland is developing an elementary Food and Health training course.

Monitoring

5.6 The main mechanism for monitoring delivery of the National Priorities for Education is through the School Improvement Framework which will come into effect from academic year 2002-2003. The National Priorities are broad, reflecting Ministers' vision for education. They encompass specific topics such as school meals provision. Within the Framework, progress will be measured using attainment and other statistics, school and authority self-evaluation and evidence from HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE).

Background

5.7 The Standards in Scotland's Schools etc Act 2000 (the 2000 Act) created a statutory framework for schools education that requires education authorities and schools to plan, monitor and report on improvement in education - an improvement framework.

5.8 In practice, most authorities and schools have been planning in this general way for some time. The 2000 Act provides a way to give more coherence to that planning process at national and local level. The National Priorities have been designed to give emphasis and direction to the whole range of monitoring on progress, undertaken by education authorities and their schools as well as by the Scottish Executive. The Scottish Executive will produce a detailed report on progress against National Priorities every three years, starting with a baseline report in 2002.

5.9 Advice in Guidance to Education Authorities on Implementing the National Priorities recommends that education authorities should keep planning and monitoring arrangements simple and focused. Our recommendations have been prepared to reflect this advice.

5.10 Within the broad requirements to address the National Priorities in Improvement Plans, Ministers have identified key policy themes, which all education authorities are asked to refer to specifically in their Improvement Plans. These include health promotion (including personal development of pupils, physical activity strategy and school meals provision).

5.11 The Scottish Executive has translated each Priority into outcomes and has produced related performance measures and quality indicators. For National Priorities 2 and 3, which provide a vehicle for monitoring the implementation of improvements in school lunches, these are as follows:

National Priority 2

Outcome: enhanced school environments which are more conducive to teaching and learning.

Performance measures and quality indicators include, for education authorities, number and percentage of schools with Health Promoting School status (primary and secondary schools separately).

Note: the actual requirements to receive Health Promoting School status have yet to be defined. A Scottish Health Promoting Schools Unit has been established and a defined strategy plan is being developed. Providing an up-to-date policy statement on the Health Promoting School concept and what it involves is an early focus of the work of the Unit. The Unit will also consider the appropriate means of accreditation and monitoring of the Health Promoting School status. Ministers have set as an objective that all schools should become Health Promoting Schools by 2007.

National Priority 3

Outcome: every pupil benefits equally from education.

Performance measures and quality indicators include, for education authorities, percentage of pupils (primary and secondary schools separately) who are entitled to free school meals and percentage who take them up.

5.12 The performance measures identified above are both quantitative. For some of the National Priority outcomes, use of quality indicators has been suggested, to capture a fuller picture than can be got from statistics alone. The quality indicators suggested have been drawn from the How good is our school? indicators developed by HMIE for schools to use in their self-evaluation. These indicators are also used by HMIE when inspecting schools.

5.13 Particular quality indicators for schools to use when evaluating the quality of their school meals provision are suggested in Annex G.

Approaches to Monitoring

5.14 Encouragement should be given to promote self-evaluation by schools and education authorities to complement monitoring by the Scottish Executive. A workable and powerful system could be created which combines external evaluation with self-evaluation by schools (reporting to parents and the local community) and quality assurance by education authorities. Self-evaluation of a school's approaches to health promotion, for example, has been encouraged already through the publication of A Route to Health Promotion: self-evaluation using performance indicators that was produced jointly by Aberdeen City Council, Health Education Board for Scotland and HMIE Audit Unit. This publication, which builds on the approach to self-evaluation used in How good is our school?, includes references to school meals.

5.15 We propose four different levels of monitoring. These range from annual monitoring of key data from all education authorities to more detailed monitoring of practice in a sample of schools and education authorities and independent research. Using such an approach to monitoring should help to maintain a focus on improvements in school meal provision and uptake from the start of the implementation of nutrient standards. It should also enable the publication, possibly in 2006, of a more detailed report by HMIE on progress in implementation.

Level 1 Monitoring (for every school and education authority each year, starting from 2003)

5.16 As part of annual reporting on National Priorities, the following should be monitored:

• for each education authority, the number and percentage of schools with Health Promoting School status
• for each education authority, percentage of pupils (primary and secondary sector separately) who are entitled to free school meals and percentage who take them up.

5.17 By December 2004, education authorities should be required to report on how they have reduced the stigma attached to taking free school meals and how they have improved general uptake of school meals in primary and special schools. By December 2006, they should be required to report on how they have reduced the stigma attached to taking free school meals and how they have improved general uptake of school meals in secondary schools.

5.18 Implementation of nutrient standards should be monitored through the use of nutritional analysis software, development of which should be commissioned by the Scottish Executive. Such software could be used for self-evaluation of nutrient standards as well as for external monitoring of nutrient standards. Formal arrangements should be developed with local NHS Boards and Trusts to secure dietetic advice and help with making changes and improvements.

Level 2 Monitoring (as part of HMIE programme of school inspections, starting from August 2003)

5.19 In every inspection within the six/seven year inspection cycle, include data on free meal entitlement, uptake of free meals and uptake of meals generally, identifying trends over time and include reference to dining room facilities within evaluation of accommodation and facilities (quality indicators 6.1 and 6.3).

5.20 In a sample of inspections (which could include focus on Social Inclusion Partnership areas) take account of:

• arrangements for consulting pupils on school meals, when evaluating the quality of climate and relationships (quality indicator 5.1)
• school meal provision for pupils from varying ethnic backgrounds, when evaluating equality and fairness (quality indicator 5.3)
• include comment on the promotion of healthy eating habits, when evaluating the quality of pastoral care (quality indicator 4.1).

5.21 In a sample of inspections, including some inspections of New Community Schools, work with personnel from external agencies (who would act as specialist Associate Assessors) to carry out a more detailed evaluation of school meals provision including, for example, pupils' access to socially inclusive arrangements, provision of special diets and the overall health promoting environment.

5.22 The information and evaluations gathered from all the above inspections could be used to publish, possibly biennially, examples of good practice relating to school meals within the context of the health promoting school.

5.23 As part of its inspections of the education functions of education authorities, HMIE might be asked to include aspects of school meals provision.

Level 3 Monitoring

5.24 The Scottish Executive should commission HMIE to work with specialist Associate Assessors to undertake a more detailed evaluation of school meals provision and produce a report for publication. Such a task could be planned to monitor progress towards the proposed 2006 target date for implementation of nutrient standards and/or the full implementation of these standards.

5.25 HMIE has previously produced such reports on aspects of health education. Two examples are Drug and Nutrition Education: A Study of Provision in Schools and Community Education (HM Inspectors of Schools, February 1999) and Health Promotion: Issues for Councils and Schools (HM Inspectors of Schools, November 1999).

Level 4 Monitoring

5.26 The Scottish Executive should commission independent research in 2007 to assess the implementation and impact of the recommendations.

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