School meals are to be outsourced (From The Oxford Times)

School meals are to be outsourced

10:30am Saturday 4th February 2012 in News By Liam Sloan

Left to right, Bure Park Primary pupils Nathan Salter and Crystal Stevens get their lunch from Sue Tugwood while headteacher Rob Pearson looks on. Picture: OX50182 Richard Cave

OXFORDSHIRE’S healthy school dinners service looks set to be handed over to private contractors, after councillors were promised that standards would not drop.

Cabinet members have been recommended to include the primary school meals service as part of a multi-million facilities contract at a meeting on Monday.

The county council’s in-house Food With Thought service, which currently supplies 1.25 million meals to about 180 schools a year, made a £900,000 surplus in 2011.

But County Hall fears the service will not remain viable if more schools opt out of the service as they turn into academies.

Three unnamed companies are set to bid for the vast contract.

The council insists nutritional standards of school dinners would be maintained or improved, and the new contractor will have to attract even more youngsters to take up the offer.

While the best schools have 69 per cent take up, on average of only a third of children buy school dinners.

The winning firm will have to use fresh, local ingredients, promote healthy eating, and meet specified standards.

Prices would fall from £2.10 to £2 a day in September, and each school will decide whether to use the provider.

Bicester’s Bure Park Primary School headteacher Rob Pearson, who sat on the Oxfordshire Schools Forum committee which examined the issue, said headteachers’ fears had been addressed.

He said: “We feel reassured that the safeguards we are putting into the contract will maintain the current standards of quality and develop on them.

“We hope it is a positive move forwards.”

And Oxfordshire Governors Association chair Carole Thomson added: “The assurances that we have been given are that staff jobs are secure and the quality of the service will be as good or better.”

But UNISON representatives said Food With Thought should have been given a chance to continue running the service and strike their own deals with schools.

Steward Neil Browning said: “I’m disappointed that the people within Food With Thought, who have worked so hard to make it a success, have not been given the opportunity to take it on themselves.

“I have concerns about school meals within Oxfordshire, and can see it breaking up and fragmenting within three years.”

And Lib Dem councillor Jean Fooks added: “The fact that these three contractors may be fine does not mean that Food With Thought could not do a better job.”

Council officers have toured the country visiting schools where the three bidding contractors serve food to children aged three to 19.

Assistant Head of Property Mike Salter told councillors: “All three contractors can meet our requirements for this service.

“The food quality was very high. The training for staff is very focused, and all providers are required to train cooks and assistant cooks to NVQ Level 2.”

And UNISON branch secretary Pete Fryer said he was “very comfortable” with the service they provided and treatment of employees.

Oxfordshire County Council was unable to tell the Oxford Mail how much would be spent on ingredients per meal.