4. Will the Minister make a statement on the quality of school meals in Wales? OAQ(5)0028(EDU)

Thank you, Nick. The Healthy Eating in Schools (Nutritional Standards and Requirements) (Wales) Regulations 2013 aim to improve the nutritional standards of food and drink served in Welsh schools. This helps ensure children and young people are offered healthy food and drink throughout the school day.

Thank you. Last week, I was one of many AMs who attended the National School Meals Week event at the Pierhead. I believe you were there yourself, along with the Chair of the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee, to my right. We enjoyed some of the very best of Welsh school food, including jam roly-poly, tikka masala and, of course, spotted dick. AMs were treated to the best food, but, of course, Cabinet Secretary, standards of food do vary across Wales, particularly in rural areas where costs are higher. How are you ensuring standards are high across Wales, so that all schools can benefit from the highest quality of school meals?

Thank you very much, Nick. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the event that you were at, but Lesley Griffiths, my Cabinet colleague did, as did my officials. Now that I know that there was jam roly-poly on offer, I’m particularly disappointed I wasn’t able to get there. I am aware that there is a constant review amongst local authorities of how they can ensure that the very best quality of food is going into their school meals service, and they do that, trying to balance the needs of affordability for parents as well, and sustaining a school meals service. I am particularly keen, where they can, that local authority catering teams are able to source local produce for use in their school canteens. I do that because not only is it good news for the local economy and it means that they get great produce in their school meals, but it’s also a great way to connect learners with the origins of the food that they eat, something that, in many places in recent years, has been lost.

It’s School Milk Day today, so we should recognise and acknowledge that as we discuss nutritious food in our schools. What opportunities does the Cabinet Secretary have now to improve nutrition and the quality of school food, given the fact that we’re leaving the European Union and procurement rules won’t apply in the same way, so we could promote local food, and with the possibility under the new curriculum of having children and young people growing their own food, processing their own food in cooking it at school, and then consuming that food too? Because, as I understand it, there are serious problems actually preventing children from doing that at present.

Can I thank Simon for that? The current legislative framework already allows schools and local authorities to procure Welsh produce if they wish to do that, and many do, where they can, and where they can balance, as I said, the issues around local procurement with maintaining school meal prices at a level that is affordable for parents. We’ll be looking to review what opportunities may arise out of changes to procurement rules, not only in education but across Welsh procurement. But, if there are opportunities to get more local produce into schools, then I would welcome that.

With regard to pupils growing their own food, the new curriculum outlined by Donaldson actually creates much more flexibility in our curriculum to allow schools to be able to tailor their needs without having to pay reference constantly to the very tick-box curriculum that we currently have at the moment. So, I would hope that there were opportunities for more of that activity. Certainly, within the foundation phase and the focus on outdoor education, there is plenty of opportunity for our very youngest pupils and their teachers and learning practitioners to be engaged in that kind of activity, and I know that many do.