03 June 2005
The catering workforce in schools needs to be massively expanded if schoolchildren are to be given healthy and nutritious meals, Unison said this week.
Christina McAnea, head of education services at the public sector union, said school kitchen staff should not have to rely on pre-prepared and processed ingredients.
'The staff have been doing their best with the resources and time available but we want them to be given the time to cook meals from scratch. This can only be done by increasing the hours they work and employing more people,' she said.
McAnea added that money alone was not enough to improve the quality of school food. 'We need to have a properly planned workforce that has access to training and follows a minimum set of national standards,' she said.
At Unison's school meals conference on June 1, Education Secretary Ruth Kelly stressed that improving the quality of school meals was a wider part of the government's child welfare agenda.
She said the Learning and Skills Council would provide training for up to 15,000 school staff, including kitchen staff, next year and roll out a new vocational qualification in school catering.
'We have to act for the one in three children not doing enough daily physical activity,' Kelly told delegates. 'We have to reverse the trend where a majority eat too much fat, sugar and salt and only a minority eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.'
'No one wants to serve up cheap slop. But we cannot send Jamie Oliver to every school.'
TV chef Oliver was instrumental in prompting the government to promise £280m to improve school meals.
PFjun2005
