Many of Fife’s school kitchens could face the axe as Fife Council decides its budget for the coming year, and that may mean jobs are cut.
The council will look at two options: offer one hot choice rather than two; or have food made outwith the premises and shipped to 24 smaller primary schools which cater for fewer than 50 school meals a day.
Both proposals have been through the council’s policy forum, and the final decision will be taken by the local authority at the budget meeting this week.
The Courier understands the service has already made “substantial savings” by reducing areas like equipment, and further savings can be made only by significant changes in the way it works and services on offer.
Staff who may be affected have been involved in the formal consultation, and the review has involved unions and human resources representatives. The news has left Fife Labour group leader Alex Rowley angered by the way the council’s policy forum operates.
However, administration leader Peter Grant has hit back, saying Labour had no interest in helping provide a balanced budget or a balanced meal for Fife’s schoolchildren.
Mr Rowley said the policy forum is seen as “the body which makes the decisions, but it excludes everyone but the SNP and Lib Dems.”‘Secret sessions’He added, “From my point of view it demonstrates the way this budget has been made officials swoop in to meet councillors in secret sessions. Until Thursday we won’t know whether this has been decided or not.”
He said the option to restrict a “choice” to one hot meal was unacceptable, as were potential cuts to the service.
“They could drive children out of school dining rooms with these proposals,” he said, adding that Fife was one of five local authorities which piloted the Scottish Government’s scheme to provide free school meals for children in primary 1-3.
Then education and lifelong learning secretary Fiona Hyslop chose Oakley to announce it was being rolled out across the country.
“All these SNP ministers came across to Fife to praise the scheme will they now be shocked to see the proposals?” he said.
However, Mr Grant replied, “Labour are up to their usual tricks of promising to oppose every potential saving but failing to put forward a single credible idea towards closing the budget gap left by their own economic incompetence.
“The council meeting on Thursday will consider savings suggested by managers which amount to about 2.5% of the total cost of school meals.
“If councillors accept these savings every child will still be able to get a healthy and nutritious meal that meets the government’s nutrition guidelines. We will also continue to cater for specific dietary requirements.”Impact on menuStating there would be no impact on menu choice in secondaries, he said, “While Labour try to portray this as the end of the world, nearly 70% of responses to our Balancing The Books consultation were in favour of the change.
“This is clear evidence that…the vast majority of Fifers understand we need to be prepared to consider changes like these if we want to avoid even more severe cuts to priority services.
“Opposition groups have been aware of the full details of management proposals since October last year. At that time the administration invited them to tell us of any proposals that they would find difficult to accept.
“We are now less than 72 hours away from setting our budget and the Labour group still haven’t raised a single point of concern directly with us… They have no interest in helping to provide either a balanced budget for the council or a balanced meal for our schoolchildren.”
Head of asset and facilities management Ken Gourlay said, “As many people will have seen through the Balancing the Books conversation, a range of ideas are being put forward to help the council make huge savings, and the council has talked about a need to reduce its workforce.
“No decisions have yet been taken about the catering service, we are exploring alternative options for providing meals in small schools which cater for less than 50 meals per day. This could mean we need fewer staff and facilities in these schools moving forward.
“So now we’re in a formal 90-day consultation period with staff whose jobs could be affected if it’s decided to go ahead with this change. We’ve been talking to all employees personally and the unions are involved in the consultation too…
“If staffing levels are to be reduced we hope it will mainly be on a voluntary basis.”