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Hungry for Success

Annex I Costing of Recommendations

Background

1. We were charged with providing fully costed recommendations. This annex provides details of the estimated costs of implementing the recommendations. Costs in this annex should be seen as indicative of the scale of funding.

2. The annex will first set out the data and methodology used and will then detail the cost calculations which have been made to estimate the impact of our recommendations. It then provides indicative follow-on costs of our recommendations, which arise from increased uptake of school meals and increased uptake of free school meals.

3. The costs in this annex represent the best estimate we can make on current available information. It should, however, be noted that uncertainty remains over the exact scale of costs, especially in relation to future uptake where an assumption of a 6-percentage point increase has been made. While the audit of current practice provided useful indications of the current situation, not all relevant information could be obtained. However, we have attempted to validate the costings from other sources where possible. The following costs are the best estimates we can provide.

Available Data and Main Results

4. This section describes the main data used in the analysis. It is divided into the three main data sources:

• School meal statistics 2000-01 (Scottish Executive National Statistical publication)
• Audit of current practice
• Expert Panel's expertise.

School Meals Statistical Publication

5. This statistical publication ¹ provided the majority of the background information on school meal uptake in Scotland. This background data showed that there were 740,000 pupils on school rolls in Scotland. Just over 665,000 pupils were present on the school meal census day. Of those present on census day, 48.7% took a school meal - this is equivalent to approximately 324,000 pupils.

6. 19.5% of all pupils are recorded as being entitled to free school meals - this is equivalent to about 144,000 pupils. In primary schools, 20.8% are recorded as having free meal entitlement whilst 16.7% of secondary pupils are entitled to free school meals. School meal entitlement is measured against the total number of pupils enrolled in Scottish schools. We do not have data to determine how many of these pupils were present in school on the day of the school meal census.

7. On the day of the school meal census, 15.5% of pupils ate a free school meal - this is equivalent to 103,000 pupils. In primary schools, 17.5% took a free school meal and 11.5% of secondary school pupils also took a free meal on census day. It is unknown whether the pupils entitled to a free school meal were present in school on the day and whether they were registered as eligible.

Audit of Current Practice

8. Our audit of current practice was used to determine the level of provision of school meals and associated costs as well as the likely costs in upgrading these services.

Expertise of the Expert Panel

9. For any information relating to the costs of specific school meal services not covered by the data described above, our own expertise was used to provide an estimate of the likely costs of the recommendations.

Methodology

10. The impact of the recommendations on costs has been examined with a view to determine the additional costs to public expenditure rather than attempting to estimate the true economic costs. Where appropriate, capital costs have been listed and resource costs (calculated by using the Green Book discount rate of 6%) have also been included. These capital costs are generally shown per school rather than by education authority as any programme of improvement might be phased in over time and might be taken forward within a wider context of school estate improvements.

Costed Recommendations

11. Costs have been grouped into general themes to provide a better overview of overall costings. The following paragraphs detail the costings in each broad area.

Staff & Training

Supervision by Classroom Assistants

12. To supervise dining areas, the recommendation proposes to increasingly use classroom assistants rather than teaching staff. These classroom assistants are provided under the National Agreement on Teachers' Pay and Conditions to relieve teachers of non-teaching duties. Using them for dining room supervision is consistent with this principle. This entails staff costs but in economic terms this frees teachers from non-teaching duties and, in terms of additional public expenditure, these classroom assistants are financed under the National Agreement so no additional public expenditure arises.

Training for Catering Staff and Additional Catering Staff

13. To encourage healthy eating, catering staff will be asked to encourage healthy choices, avoid situations where pupils are stigmatised and to present and cook the food in an attractive way. To achieve this objective will require additional training. A course is currently being designed to address these issues. It is estimated that the course will be a full day course, charging an administration cost of 40-70 per person depending on uptake. There will also be travelling and subsistence costs associated with the course, as well as staff costs. We have based the estimate on training catering staff across Scotland. Better dining services and higher uptake will also require additional catering staff to cut queues and to provide additional services. This will be especially important for large secondary schools. We have estimated additional staff costs on the basis of providing an additional part-time catering assistant for all secondary schools.

Monitoring and Implementation Costs

14. To effectively implement the new Scottish Nutrient Standards and other improvements to the school meal service will require effective monitoring and evaluation, as well as dissemination of good practice. The monitoring and implementation plan sets out additional requirements for a number of different agencies, including schools, local authorities, HM Inspectorate of Education and the Scottish Executive. Additional costs are likely to arise to monitor nutrient standards and to disseminate good practice, as well as additional inspection costs for HM Inspectorate of Education, additional analysis and data management, annual research and progress monitoring and evaluation.

Scottish Nutrient Standards

15. Each school day, about 50% of pupils in school eat a school meal, translating to roughly around 324,000 pupils (roughly equivalent to 56.4 million meals a year). Indications from some education authorities (which have already achieved higher nutrient standards) are that implementing the new Scottish Nutrient Standards will cost around 5% additionally. For the costings we have used a range from 5%-15% in additional costs per meal to enable all education authorities to improve standards sufficiently. A higher price for paying pupils would translate into lower uptake, so the cost is assumed to fall fully onto the public sector. This means an additional subsidy of 4.8m to 14.5m.

Encouraging Healthy Eating

Labelling, Promotion/Subsidies/Incentives of Healthy Options, Incentives for Catering Staff

16. For the costings we have used a range from 5p-10p in additional costs per meal to cover any incentive schemes aimed at improving uptake of healthier options, as well as providing water, fruit and bread where appropriate. As previously, a higher price for paying pupils would translate into lower uptake. The cost is thus assumed to fall fully onto subsidies. This means an additional subsidy of 2.8m to 5.6m to cover all pupils currently having a meal.

Investment into Uptake

Card Systems

17. Installation of swipe cards is estimated to cost on average around 16,000, with associated resource costs of about 1,000. However, costs are likely to differ according to the size of a school for example through the number of validators required. In addition, smart card systems are likely to be more expensive than simple swipe cards. If installation proceeds on the basis of smart cards for all secondary schools, costs are likely to be higher than these estimates. Average running costs are between 800 and 1,500 (again possibly reflecting the difference between swipe cards and smart cards), averaging at about 1,100. At the moment only 4% of schools have this technology, but among secondary schools the rate is as high as 30%. Smart card technology has much wider uses than just in the dining hall. Exploiting the potential of the technology for a range of uses, which could include improving data management, security and administration, is part of the Modernising Government Agenda. Funding for a smart card project would cover part of the costs of smart cards in schools.

Dining Areas

18. Improving dining areas is estimated to require average installation costs of around 24,000 with associated resource costs of around 1,500 per annum. Around 20% of schools have recently improved their dining rooms. About 25% of schools currently have no facilities to prepare school meals on the premises and additional uptake might also put additional pressure on existing facilities. Improving school estates is part of the developing estates strategy and funding for this strategy is expected to be covered by Public Private Partnership projects and by other Scottish Executive funding for estate improvements. It is important to emphasise that funding for improved dining facilities is vital to increase uptake of school meals. Funding through the above mentioned funding streams needs to be sufficient to make a real difference to a large number of dining facilities which require upgrading and thought needs to be given to ensure that all schools which require funding are taken into consideration. Funding in this area should be one of the priorities considered in the school estates strategy.

Indicative Cost Impact of Additional Uptake

19. A number of our recommendations are aimed at increasing uptake of school meals. As an indication of costs, an increase in uptake by 6% would raise overall uptake to almost 55% and the percentage of children taking a free school meal on the day would rise to about 17.5%. This would result in the provision of an additional 7 million meals. This increase in uptake would result in an additional cost of 5.4m for free meals and for subsidies for paid meals. For the costings of nutrient standards we have used a range from 5%-15% in additional costs per meal. This translates into an additional subsidy of 1.2m. To promote the healthy option adds additional subsidies of about 500,000. This cost should be seen as a variable cost as it depends on future numbers of children eating a school meal.

Summary

20. The following table shows all of our costed recommendations.

Summary Table: Additional Public Sector Cost per Annum

The implementation of our recommendations (with smart/swipe card and building estate costs being taken forward through separate funding streams) is estimated to cost in the region of 24m per annum.

¹ The 2000-01 figures for school meals were the latest available figures at the time the audit of current practice was carried out. To ensure consistency between the school meal figures and the results of the audit of current practice which were also used in the costings, the costings were not updated with the 2001-02 figures for school meals which were released in June 2002. The 2001-02 school meal figures show that free meal entitlement and uptake have fallen slightly, this would result in lower costs to local authorities for providing these meals. However, against this, overall uptake was seen to improve slightly, this would result in a higher subsidy provision for those local authorities which subsidise school meals.

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