SCHOOL meal regulations are placing an additional strain on Argyll and Bute Council’s budget, the authority’s executive director has said.
A report revealed that new cost and demand pressures for ‘food and drink standards’ were handing the council an extra £65,000 cost every year.
That led council leader Robin Currie to seek clarity on whether this was due to school meals being given out while schools were closed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
But executive director Kirsty Flanagan said that the increased cost had come from new regulations for school meals set out by the Scottish Government.
The discussion took place at a meeting of the council’s policy and resources committee as it debated the authority’s budget outlook up to 2025/26.
READ MORE: SQA exam results fiasco: How were Helensburgh pupils affected?
Ms Flanagan said: “There have been new regulations on what we are allowed to give children as part of a school meal, and that has brought about an increase in costs.
“One example of this would be that we are only allowed to give pupils a specific type of yoghurt, and demand is pushing costs up. It has nothing to do with Covid costs.”
Ms Flanagan’s fellow executive director, Douglas Hendry, also stated that uptake of school meals had not been up to the same level as it had been before the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said: “Schools only opened at the back end of August, but it is looking as if the uptake of meals and income from them is down.
“That is something we have an eye on and will bring back to members as and when we have a firmer handle of it.
READ MORE: Kilcreggan Primary School receives prestigious UNICEF award
“It looks like there might be an issue as since the schools came back, pupils have not been taking up school meals as they had before Covid set in.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Following a public consultation and engagement with our local authority partners we will be introducing amended regulations for the provision of school food and drink in April 2021.
"The amended regulations will make school food even healthier by reducing the amount of sugar served, increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables that are available and placing a maximum on the amount of red and red processed meat that can be served in a school week.
“The 2020/21 local government finance settlement announced in March means that Argyll and Bute Council were due to receive £219.7million to fund local services.
“Taken together with the council’s decision to increase council tax by 4.5 per cent, the council had an initial extra £12.5m to support vital day-to-day services in 2020/21, which was the equivalent of an additional 6.3 per cent on 2019/20.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here