Supporting schools to provide healthy options

Working with schools to reduce childhood obesity

Children and staff in local schools will play a critical role in championing changes within their settings, ensuring healthy food and physical activity become the norm.

We have taken a three-step approach to understand how schools can have the most impact on childhood obesity rates locally.

Firstly, we reviewed the current international evidence base with our partner the Behaviour Insights Team. This determined what types of changes in schools are most likely to have an impact on childhood obesity.

We then spent time with local headteachers to discuss the evidence and gather their insights and ideas to inform the development of our schools strand. The heads identified some key opportunities and highlighted the significant resourcing and infrastructure challenges faced in creating healthy school environments.

Finally, we funded a handful of ‘test and learn’ projects including:

• supporting healthy eating by creating Healthy Food Zones in Southwark schools with our partner School Food Matters
• promoting healthy weight outcomes through the Food for Life schools programme in collaboration with the Soil Association
• increasing access to healthier food and opportunities for physical activity in two local Oasis academy schools with our partner Oasis Hub Waterloo
• increasing access to funding for schools applying to the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund, in collaboration with Lambeth Council and Southwark Council
• What we have learned working with local schools and partners

Our work to date shows us that:

Many primary and secondary schools aren’t meeting the School Food Standards (SFS) throughout the school day. The SFS are the minimum we expect from schools to serve nutritious meals, but schools aren’t actively supported to meet these requirements. Schools and caterers are not systematically checked for compliance with the SFS. For example, OFSTED inspections don’t currently include inspecting school food provision.  

Not all children are getting the recommended active minutes of physical activity they need a day. To maintain a basic level of health, children and young people aged five to 18 need to do at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. However, schools have told us about the difficulties of meeting the curriculum requirements for PE lessons. The curriculum is packed, and PE isn’t prioritised like the core subjects. Break and lunch times have also been compressed, which means there is less time for children and young people to engage in play and exercise.

It’s vital to have buy-in from school leadership. Strong commitment from the head and senior leadership team is needed to create long-lasting change to food and physical activity provision.

What’s next?

Over the next few years, we intend to scale initiatives in our boroughs and work with where childhood obesity rates are highest.

We will continue to partner with schools, caterers, local council teams and others to support the take-up of healthier food options. Children and staff in local schools will play a critical role in championing changes within their settings, ensuring healthy food and physical activity become the norm.

We will be looking to increase the number of local schools and caterers that comply with School Food Standards throughout the school day. To do this, we believe that it’s important to support the conditions schools need to take action.

Using our growing evidence base, we’d also like to work with policy partners to understand how catering supply chains and accountability mechanisms for schools can support and promote healthy food environments. We will also support a small number of projects which seek to improve the quality and quantity of play and physical activity in local schools.

We’ll be learning and sharing more about what works and doesn’t to create healthy school environments. To keep up to date with our work as our school’s strand develops, please sign up to our newsletter.