Maidenhead & Windsor

The majority of local schools involved in the Windsor and Maidenhead Royal Borough's school meals contract have backed staying with the current contractor – and the council has announced a 'kick start' funding package to help secondary schools improve their dining facilities.

A survey of the 51 Windsor and Maidenhead schools involved gave them the opportunity to say if they wanted the council to negotiate a two-year extension to its contract with Harrison Catering Services from 2008 to 2010. Of the 47 schools responding, 44 supported staying with the current meals supplier. Cllr Eileen Quick, lead member for children's services, said this reflected their appreciation of the high standard of nutritious, appetising meals offered through the contract.

She said: "The council made it clear that the schools themselves would have the final say in how meals would be delivered when the three-year contract with Harrison's comes to an end next year. We have the option of negotiating a two-year extension but we felt schools must be directly involved in the decision-making because they are the ones using the service on a daily basis.

"The response shows a decisive 'yes' in favour of the contract extension and we will work closely with Harrison's to take forward the service and introduce new ways of encouraging even more children to enjoy school meals.

"We are very pleased that the Royal Borough is bucking the national trend with a 6% increase in uptake of primary school meals predicted for this year – compared to a 7% decrease across the country. However, we want to do even better."

The outcome of the consultation with schools was reported to cabinet on Thursday (September 27).

Windsor and Maidenhead Cabinet members agreed that to help attract more young people to school meals, particularly at secondary age, some schools needed to improve their dining areas, for example café-style facilities like those already introduced successfully by Cox Green School .

The up to £100,000-per-school funding package approved by cabinet means schools can take advantage of a deal that gives them 25% of the cost from the council and access to a loan covering 50%. Schools would then have to find only 25% of the costs from their own budgets.

Cllr Quick explained: "Several of our secondary schools have already upgraded their dining facilities, with great success, and we want to help others follow suit so that attractive, modern surroundings will add to the eating experience. The aim is to attract older students so that they too can benefit from the excellent food served through the borough's catering contract."

Cllr Quick said that, despite the Windsor and Maidenhead borough's increasing uptake in school meals, she appreciated that some schools were finding it difficult to encourage sufficient numbers of pupils to have meals to enable them to meet their targets and cover costs. This had resulting implications for their budgets when they had to make up the shortfall.

A recent petition from Maidenhead's Alwyn Infant School asked the council to make up the shortfall but Cllr Quick explained: "We have given the petition very serious consideration but it is just not possible for the council to make a special case for certain schools, especially since this would take money away from other services.

"Every penny of the money provided by the government to cover school meals is passed on to our schools and it would be very unfair to give additional money to some schools which have, like all those taking part in the meals contract, been given their full allocation of the available funding."

The Windsor and Maidenhead council's position on this issue has been given the 'complete support' of the local group of the Berkshire Association of Secondary Headteachers (BASH).

In a letter to Windsor and Maidenhead Cllr Quick last week, chairman Ian Hylan, headteacher of Cox Green School, expressed the group's opposition to funds being used to subsidise those schools currently facing financial pressures due to sales not meeting their meals targets. Funding should be used to meet the educational priorities of students and the heads said they wished to 'align themselves firmly against the allocation of additional resources in this partial manner'.

Cllr Quick said she welcomed this clear message from headteachers and added: "We believe that healthy meals, made with fresh ingredients, are a vital part of the schools' responsibility for the wellbeing of the whole child. It is well known that a nourishing meal aids concentration and learning and maximises the potential of all pupils.

"I recently attended a meeting of the schools forum where discussion took place on the possibility of using some of the money devolved to schools to subsidise the schools meals contract – but the forum representatives felt this would be unfair."

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead