Some thoughts on todays letter sent to schools @vickyford and @Jochurchill4

Both of who incidentally voted against feeding FSM pupils during the school holidays https://twitter.com/ajjolley/status/1319589309603844098

Firstly the timing

The letter was drafted ahead of DFE attending a meeting with representatives and lobbyists from the school catering industry https://twitter.com/SFPAlliance/status/1319223118775410694?s=20

It appears the letter to heads was a piece of meat to throw at caterers in an effort to placate them. A cost free piece of theater designed to deflect attention from the government's lack of direction

And it seems to have worked https://twitter.com/LACA_UK/status/1319235048395231233?s=20

The timing atrocious, to talk about health benefits for pupils within days of whips rejecting calls to feed children will not go down well

Equally, the tone is one of bullying, they are clearly setting out to pressure heads into supporting the catering industry

SCHOOL FOOD STANDARDS

It really is ridiculous to hammer the food standards in this way

The standards are neither helpful nor especially healthy, moreover they are in the final stages of being replaced not least because the catering industry routinely ignore the them

Ministers remind schools that the burden for monitoring the standards lies with school leaders (who obviously haven't got enough to do in the middle of a pandemic)

This is because the government ignored the recommendation to have a monitoring body

NO ONE CHECKS!

It's also worth noting that the DfE ministers forget (ie lie) about the fact that the standards apply to "all academies"

No matter what they say, it is still not true

Its a hang over to when Gove refused to insist on standards being written into existing funding agreements

HOT MEALS

This section may as well have been written by the catering industry! it probably was TBH.

It is nothing more than ministers promoting LACA and their plans

Finally there's a push for Drinking water

One of the significant capital spends faced by schools has been removing & replacing water fountains

Dfe have singularly failed to offer up the extra funds needed by schools

If ministers are SO concerned, they should stump up some cash

All in all, with everything else that is going on around schools & feeding children. this is a highly insensitive letter

It's nothing more than a promotion exercise for the catering industry, dumping on head teachers in order to keep the multinational catering companies happy

I might as well highlight this final point about the two signatories

Jo Churchill MP for Bury St Edmunds claimed £43,860.28 in expenses last year

Vicky Ford claimed £51,396.73 https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1319606412830560256?s=20