More fruit and vegetables, less processed red meat and sugar on the menu.

https://www.gov.scot/news/making-school-food-healthier

The Scottish Government and all local authorities are jointly committed to providing the healthiest food to children and young people. This commitment is underpinned by a duty to provide school meals that meet strict nutritional requirements, including encouraging the use of fresh, local and sustainable produce School food regulations will be amended to ensure:

• a minimum of two full portions of vegetables and a full portion of fruit are offered as part of a school lunch, with full portions of fruit and or vegetables also available in, for example, tuck shops
• a minimum weekly amount in the school menu of red and processed red meat provision –  such as bacon, ham and pepperoni

For Primary schools – Ensure no more than 175g of red and red processed meat can be provided over the course of the school week, of which no more than 100g should be red processed meat. All of the 175g amount can be used for unprocessed freshly prepared red meat.

This is a new standard and is based on the Scottish Dietary Goal for red and processed meat which is supported by scientific evidence based dietary recommendations to limit intakes of these foods to 70g per day with the purpose of protecting the health of children and young people. Therefore if a child is to have processed meat in their diet this can be managed at home by parents/carers.

Dietary advice highlights red meat as a major source of iron and zinc which can contribute to meeting the recommended nutrient intakes for primary school lunches removal of fruit juice and smoothies from primary and secondary schools to help reduce sugar intake.

The measures follow extensive consultation and advice from a working group comprising health, nutrition and education experts.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/report-responses-consultation-nutritional-requirements-food-drink-schools

Currently all East Renfrewshire school meals are nutritionally analysed and comply with the existing regulations laid down by the Scottish Government.

All medically prescribed diets will be accommodated on receipt of an Acute Services Division referral form from a hospital dietician or a Doctor’s letter detailing dietary requirements.

Loraine Lawrie
Quality Manager
Facilities Management (Education)

Please find attached a letter from the Chief Executive of Social Security Scotland regarding the Best Start Grant School Age Payment that is due to open for applications from Monday 3 June 2019. 

Local Delivery Relationship Leads Contact Details

Best Start Grant – School Age Payment – Local Authority Chief Executives

As you know all Councils continue to face significantly challenging financial situations. A difficult budget decision by elected members to remove Pupil Support Assistants (Classroom Assistants) from schools was approved as part of a package of savings for 2018-2021. The removal of these assistants was pushed out to the 2nd year (August 2019) to allow schools to prepare for the proposed changes. PSA Classroom Assistants were introduced to support teachers with non-teaching tasks, moving forward there will only be the provision for Pupil Support Assistants (Additional Support Needs) within schools.   No change has been planned for Pupil Support Assistants (Additional Support Needs).  To realise the budget decision to remove Classroom Assistants from our schools we have worked closely with our Trade Union colleagues to ensure that all staff have been treated fairly and equitably.  The decision to take the saving in year 2 (2019/20) has enabled schools to manage into the changes in their Pupil Support allocation with temporary staff having been employed since 2016 when vacancies have occurred. As such the planned saving was achieved by the non-renewal of temporary contracts for staff who had a planned contractual finish date of June 2019.

I understand completely the frustration this has caused many of you as some of the temporary staff have built up strong relationships and have provided very good support to teaching staff, however, I am sure you will realise that there was no expectation by these staff beyond the terms of their contract.  Therefore where temporary staff have been deployed and a need for PSA (Additional Support Needs) support continues, then we will endeavour to ensure a permanent member of staff is redeployed to work with identified children.

The Education Department continues to be committed to our vision of “Everyone Attaining , Everyone Achieving through Excellent Experiences” despite the difficult financial constraints that are being imposed on Councils and we appreciate the dedication and support of all staff in delivering a quality education during these testing times.

Tracy A Morton

Education Senior Manager (Developing People)

East Renfrewshire Council