Schoolchildren set for higher quality meals under council’s new £4m framework

School children in one borough are set for higher quality food in their school meals after new plans were approved on Monday.

The plans – approved by Southwark council’s cabinet – will help schools source and buy high quality and healthy food from more local businesses and for better value for money.

Southwark’s school food market is complex. Each school has different contracts in place with varying ways of finding and selecting food produce and services. 

A more stable system will give schools more control over their catering contracts and the quality of their food.

To achieve this the councils plans include reducing the administrative burden on schools when organising food services, wage rises in school kitchens, uphold high meal standards and improving access to services from smaller businesses and community groups in the area.

The council’s cabinet approved plans to develop the new framework with a total estimated value of £4million.

The framework will be available to all schools and academies in Southwark.

A council spokeswoman said: “We were one of the first councils to commit to free, healthy school meals for all primary children. Since then, our children are better nourished and achieving better results. 

“Now we are raising the bar again by unlocking the power of procurement to further improve the food given to pupils throughout the day, working closely with schools and partners.

“Our new framework will make it far easier for schools to ensure they are consistently serving food that is nutritious, sustainably sourced, and good value for money. 

“The framework will cut down the burden and cost for schools, while opening up new jobs and new access for local businesses within our school food market.”

The council is working together with the Department for Education to deliver the procurement framework. 

This project is one of the goals under the local authorities wider school meals transformation programme which launched in December 2021.

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