Imagine this scenario – you’re at work, it’s incredibly busy, it’s hot and the pressure is through the roof.
You’ve got very little time to prepare for the hundreds of customers who are going to descend on you – all at the same time and they all need to be served within the space of half an hour.
You can’t remember the last time you weren’t short-staffed, and no matter how often you have asked for the equipment you need it never seems to be given.
Your customers all have different wants and needs – and if you make one small mistake then for some of those customers the consequences could be life-threatening.
Well, you have just imagined what it feels like on an average working day in the life of too many school meals workers.
One of the biggest issues we hear, here at UNISON, from our members working in the school meals service is the difficulty of meeting the needs of the increasing numbers of children who have special dietary requirements.
Increasing numbers of children and young people with allergies are present in school canteens every term and the system is simply not designed to cope with this.
Indeed, as Headteacher Update – SecEd’s sister magazine – reported earlier this year, almost 1 in 10 children in the UK are affected by allergy with a fifth of allergic reactions happening at school – and yet only half of primary schools say they are confident managing anaphylaxis.
And we have heard examples of hard-working, skilled and experienced staff finding themselves the subject of disciplinary investigations or losing their jobs because they have made a mistake that led to a child eating something they are allergic to.
Talk to anyone who works in a school kitchen and they will tell you about budgetary constraints, reduced hours (but no reduced workload), less central support from local authorities, and not having the time to undertake proper training – sometimes just being given hand-outs to read in their own time.
The real worry is how little understanding of the pressures there is from those who are trying to improve things for children.
There are many well-meaning groups doing great work campaigning to raise awareness of the number of children with allergies – and many schools who work hard to meet the needs of all pupils.
But too often the answer they offer is that more training is needed.
Of course, training to raise awareness of allergies is vital, but school meals workers are currently being set up to fail.
We have heard about staff struggling to meet allergy needs in kitchens where meals are only ordered on the day, where orders sometimes do not arrive from suppliers at all, and where separate equipment is simply not available. On top of this, there is often a lack of formal medical information and no time for face-to-face training.
The formula used to calculate staff hours simply does not take into account the complexity of students’ needs and the time school meals professionals need to address these needs safely and effectively.
All these issues, coupled with low pay even for those with management responsibilities, have led to recruitment and retention challenges exacerbating existing staff shortages.
It is vital that we meet the needs of all pupils, but it cannot be done in the current environment which operates as a market, with an abundance of producers competing to lower costs and increase productivity to maximise profits.
School meals workers need to be respected and given the time and resources they need to do their job properly – providing nutritious, safe, food for all children, especially those with allergies.
- Leigh Powell is national officer, Education and Children’s Services, at UNISON.
Further information & resources
- UNISON has produced guidance, entitled Dealing with food allergies as a school meals worker, to help school meals workers meet allergy needs. Download this via https://shop.unison.site/content/uploads/2023/09/27509.pdf