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School Meals in Scotland 2006

This statistical publication notice provides results of the latest annual survey of school meals. The information was collected in early 2006 from all publicly funded schools in Scotland.

For the second time the publication also includes information about local authority expenditure on meals.

The main findings for 2006 are:

School meals (free or purchased)

• Overall in 2004-05, local authorities spent £101 million preparing over 57 million meals, compared to £97 million spent preparing 60 million meals in 2003-04 ( Table 24). A further £3.1 million was spent on school milk programmes ( Table 26).
• Of those pupils present on the survey day, 46.1 per cent took a meal supplied by the school, a slight decrease from 46.7 per cent in 2005 ( Table 3). The percentage taking meals in primary schools has actually increased slightly, but this was offset by decreases in the secondary and special sectors.
• Percentage of pupils taking meals was generally higher in smaller schools ( Table 4) and in schools in more rural areas ( Table 5).

Free school meals

• Eighteen per cent of pupils were known to be entitled to free school meals ( Table 1). This is down from 19 per cent in 2005. Sixteen per cent of all pupils were registered for free school meals.
• Of those entitled, 69 per cent were present and took a free school meal on the survey day, up from 67 per cent in 2005. This increase reverses the trend of recent years. This equates to 13 per cent of all pupils ( Table 2).
• Forty-four per cent of mainstream schools had an anonymised system for free school meals receipt, up from 33 per cent in 2005 ( Tables 19 and 20).

Healthy eating

• All local authority primary schools gave free fresh fruit to P1 and P2 pupils, and 91 per cent of all schools had free fresh chilled water available to pupils and staff at all times, down from 94 per cent in 2005. ( Tables 19, 20 and 21). This decrease is likely to be artificial, being explained by revised guidance which reinforced the criteria required for a school being counted as providing water.
• Thirty-three per cent of all schools provided a breakfast club service to pupils. Provision of breakfast clubs was more common in those schools with higher rates of deprivation ( Table 6).

Tables

Summary figures
Table 1 - Pupils entitled to free school meals by sector, 1999 to 2006
Table 2 - Entitled pupils taking free school meals by sector, 1999 to 2006
Table 3 - Pupils present taking school meals (free or purchased) by sector, 1999 to 2006
Table 4a - Pupils taking school meals, free or paid for, by size of school, publicly funded primary schools 2006
Table 4b - Pupils taking school meals, free or paid for, by size of school, publicly funded secondary schools 2006
Table 5 - Pupils taking school meals, free or paid for, by urban/rural indicator of school, 2006
Table 6 - Provision of breakfast clubs in schools, by rate of free school meal registration (deprivation indicator), 2006

Primary
Table 7 - Pupils in education authority primary schools: Number of pupils entitled, registered and taking free school meals, 2006
Table 8 - Pupils in education authority primary schools: Percentage of pupils entitled, registered and taking free school meals, 2006
Table 9 - Pupils in education authority primary schools: Number and percentage of pupils taking school meals (free or purchased), 2006
Table 10 - Pupils in education authority primary schools: Percentage of pupils entitled to free school meals, 1999 to 2006 ( NPI 3.1.C)
Table 11 - Pupils in education authority primary schools: Percentage of entitled pupils taking free school meals, 1999 to 2006 ( NPI 3.1.C)
Table 12 - Pupils in education authority primary schools: Percentage of pupils present taking school meals (free or purchased), 1999 to 2006

Secondary
Table 13 - Pupils in education authority secondary schools: Number of pupils entitled, registered and taking free school meals, 2006
Table 14 - Pupils in education authority secondary schools: Percentage of pupils entitled, registered and taking free school meals, 2006
Table 15 - Pupils in education authority secondary schools: Number and percentage of pupils taking school meals (free or purchased), 2006
Table 16 - Pupils in education authority secondary schools: Percentage of pupils entitled to free school meals, 1999 to 2006 ( NPI 3.1.C)
Table 17 - Pupils in education authority secondary schools: Percentage of entitled pupils taking free school meals, 1999 to 2006 ( NPI 3.1.C)
Table 18 - Pupils in education authority secondary schools: Percentage of pupils present taking school meals (free or purchased), 1999 to 2006

Other information
Table 19 - Education authority primary schools with an anonymised system, drinking water and free fruit, 2006
Table 20 - Education authority secondary schools with an anonymised system and drinking water, 2006
Table 21 - Education authority special schools with drinking water, 2006
Table 22 - Education authority schools providing breakfast clubs, 2006
Table 23 - The price charged for a standard school meal, by local authority, 2006

Expenditure
Table 24 - Local authority expenditure on school meals, 2003-04 and 2004-05
Table 25 - Local authority expenditure on school meals, by sector, 2004-05
Table 26 - Local authority school milk schemes, 2004-05

Charts
Chart 1 - Percentage entitled to free school meals, 1999 to 2006
Chart 2 - Percentage take-up of free school meals, 1999 to 2006
Chart 3 - Percentage take-up of school meals (free or purchased), 1999 to 2006
Chart 4 - Meals taken by pupils in primary and secondary schools, 2006

Background Notes

1. There were 20 schools (with an average of nine pupils each) in which no pupils took a school meal. These are excluded from tables 1-17 in the publication, as it is assumed that these schools do not provide school meals. These schools were included in some columns of Tables 18 and 20 (there was one small publicly funded secondary school in which no pupils took a school meal).

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 has been used in calculating the distribution of grant support to local authorities in previous years. Entitlement to 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 10, 11, 16 and 17 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 8 and 14). The Scottish Executive has commissioned a research project to investigate Local Authority procedures for identifying and registering children eligible for free school meals. The project aims to find out how Local Authorities establish eligibility and register school children who are entitled to free school meals; to identify any policies that Local Authorities have to encourage registration amongst those eligible; and to investigate whether there is a need for the Scottish Executive to provide additional guidance to Local Authorities, to promote a more consistent approach to the process and to ensure that those eligible for free school meal entitlement are registered. The research findings will be published in the autumn of 2006.

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 £13,910.

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 P1 and P2 pupils are 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 this year 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. This may explain the apparent fall in the proportion of schools providing drinking water.

10. For the first 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

11. 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.

12. The figures represent the gross expenditure ( i.e. not taking account of any income from school meals).

13. 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.)

14. 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

15. 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.

16. The following symbol is used in the publication:

17. This report was edited by: Matt Flanagan, Mal Cooke, Carrie Graham, Colin Gallacher.

18. All tables are available on the Scottish Executive website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00507-00.asp

Enquiries or comments

19. Public enquiries (non-media) about the information contained in this News Release should be addressed to

Telephone 0131 244 0300
or email school.stats@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

20. Media enquiries about the information in this News Release should be addressed to

Mali Stanton
Telephone 0131 244 2670

Statistics Publication Notice
6 ^th June, 2006

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