Committee
Communities Committee, 06 Dec 2006
06 Dec 2006 · S2 · Communities Committee
Item of business
Schools<br />(Health Promotion and Nutrition) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
The point was purely on the principle of trying to engage kids and get them to take school lunches.What impact do you think the duty on education authorities to promote school lunches will have on the uptake of school meals, considering the range of factors that influence whether pupils take school lunches? This goes back to my earlier point. Do you think that the likes of lunch clubs and extra-curricular activities could be an enticement?
In the same item of business
The Convener:
Lab
The second item is our further consideration of the Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition) (Scotland) Bill at stage 1. I welcome Hugh Henry, the Minister f...
The Minister for Education and Young People (Hugh Henry):
Lab
No—I am happy to go straight to questions.
The Convener:
Lab
That is great. It gives us more time for questions.Why does the Executive consider legislation in this area necessary, given that the proposals reflect much ...
Hugh Henry:
Lab
As the convener rightly suggests, there has been a significant improvement in what is happening in schools. However, we all need to accept that poor diet is ...
The Convener:
Lab
The hungry for success initiative is being taken on board by many local authorities throughout Scotland. Is the Executive under the impression, or do you hav...
Hugh Henry:
Lab
I do not know whether I would go so far as to say that it is not being embraced in some local authority areas, although we can see that, for whatever reason,...
The Convener:
Lab
I want to move on to health promotion. Under the bill, local authorities will have a statutory duty to ensure that schools are health-promoting by 2007. How ...
Hugh Henry:
Lab
We want to make health promotion a central feature and purpose of schooling, partly because there is a fundamental recognition of the impact that health has ...
The Convener:
Lab
Probably all of us would agree with much of what the minister said about the importance of the proposal and how it will improve the child's chance to learn. ...
Hugh Henry:
Lab
I could not disagree with that. Early years provision is fundamental to everything that the Executive sees as being necessary and vital for the development o...
The Convener:
Lab
Cathie Craigie has some questions on nutritional standards, so we will come back to that, but I am interested in whether nursery schools should be health pro...
Hugh Henry:
Lab
That is right. Nursery schools are subject to inspection by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education, which considers many of the broader issues. A great deal...
The Convener:
Lab
Are you concerned that, although that ethos might be adopted in good establishments that want to do well and have the interests of the child at heart, there ...
Hugh Henry:
Lab
You raise the broader issue— which extends beyond the issues that are particular to the bill—of how we might drive up standards in the early years sector, an...
John Home Robertson (East Lothian) (Lab):
Lab
We need to press the minister a little further on that. I take his point that the care commission and local authorities can get at the issue from other angle...
Hugh Henry:
Lab
I do not want to get into an argument about semantics, but John Home Robertson's point that the bill's title includes the word "Schools" is important. Many o...
John Home Robertson:
Lab
It would be an education (health promotion etc) (Scotland) bill.
Hugh Henry:
Lab
We would have to turn to a different argument about the legal and functional nature of many such establishments, which clearly are not schools. However, that...
John Home Robertson:
Lab
We may need to reflect on that.
Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP):
SNP
I have a technical question. I think that the minister said that the bill cannot cover nursery provision because of its title and its purpose. Cannot they be...
Hugh Henry:
Lab
I did not say that. I said that I would reflect on whether anything further need be done. I raised with John Home Robertson a different argument about whethe...
Christine Grahame:
SNP
I was asking more of a technical question. The long title refers to"the promotion of health in certain schools and … school hostels".Would it be legislativel...
Hugh Henry:
Lab
We should not necessarily dwell on some of the legal niceties. Even if the purposes referred to nursery schools, many of the establishments that we are discu...
The Convener:
Lab
That is an issue on which the committee, as well as you, minister, will reflect.
Hugh Henry:
Lab
The key point is that, no matter whether those establishments are defined legally as schools—I do not think that they are—we can take steps to ensure that st...
The Convener:
Lab
My final question is about the Executive's intention with regard to the duty on health promotion. How do you envisage the duty tying into the Executive's wid...
Hugh Henry:
Lab
The duty certainly will not and should not sit separately—it would be a disaster if it were to sit separately. It fits neatly into our work on the curriculum...
Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green):
Green
I have a quick supplementary question. I was pleased that the minister mentioned sexual health, the implication being that a health-promoting school is one t...
Hugh Henry:
Lab
I suppose that there is a range of things that we could include. Sexual health is a function of the things that you mention and I am not sure that specifying...
Cathie Craigie (Cumbernauld and Kilsyth) (Lab):
Lab
Why do nutritional standards need to be given a statutory basis, given the work that is taking place in schools under the hungry for success programme? Is th...