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Advice for school governors

Wednesday 21 February 2007

The Agency has been working in partnership with the National Governors' Association (NGA) to help school governors in considering their role in relation to the diet of children and young people.

In 2005, following a period of consultation, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the NGA published the first edition of ‘Food Policy in Schools’. The purpose of this document was to provide school governors with clarification about their strategic role in relation to school food.

With the introduction of nutrient based standards for school meals, the Agency worked with the NGA to publish the revised second edition of Food Policy in Schools – a strategic policy framework for governing bodies . The Department for Children, Schools and Families, the School Food Trust and National Healthy Schools were all involved in its development. Copies were distributed to governing bodies via the NGA, local authority governor services and healthy schools co-ordinators. It is available to download at the link below.

The key focus of the publication is to help equip school governors with the necessary information to develop food policies for their schools. It takes governors step by step through actions they can take and provides practical advice for governing bodies on how to tackle all aspects of food in school, from school lunches to vending machines.

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Evaluation of food policy in schools

The Agency commissioned research to establish the impact of the Food Policy in Schools document among school governors responsible in this area. The aims of the evaluation were to ascertain levels of readership, use of the document, barriers to its use, views on the document and to gather background information on governors’ views on food policy in their schools.

The evaluation found that just over half of governors surveyed had used Food Policy in Schools and the majority of them perceived the document as useful. Most governors surveyed mentioned that they would use the booklet as a reference text if an issue arose rather than reading on a regular basis. Further detail on the findings of the evaluation can be found in the document below.

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Related links

Food policy in schools research report Read the full report

Download pdf  (pdf 503KB) Food policy in schools research – executive summary report Read the executive summary report

Download pdf  (pdf 46KB) Food policy in schools: a strategic policy framework for governing bodies Read the second edition published October 2007

Download pdf  (pdf 586KB) The role of governing bodies in developing policies to promote healthy eating Read the NGC and FSA report

Download pdf  (pdf 104KB)

See also

(External) National Governors' Association website (External) Get Adobe Acrobat reader You may need the free Acrobat Reader to view a pdf

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