TO BE PUBLISHED December 2024
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This conference will examine priorities for children’s food and nutrition in England, and options for policy moving forward to support health and education, and tackle food poverty.
Stakeholders and policymakers will discuss policy priorities and approaches to improve the wider food environment, following plans committed to by the Government to implement restrictions on HFSS and ultra-processed food on both TV and paid-for online advertising by October 2025, as well as restrictions on the sale of highly caffeinated drinks to under-16s.
Sessions in the agenda will assess implications of proposals for advertising restrictions on industry and what can be learned from initiatives such as the Soft Drinks Industry Levy so far. Delegates will discuss how proposed measures can be effectively implemented - including on the internet - looking at providing clarity for businesses affected, and addressing cost and other concerns regarding proposals that have similarly prompted industry resistance in the past.
Delegates will look at next steps for tackling childhood obesity and strategies for developing new approaches to obesity prevention and care for children, following plans outlined in the draft 10 Year Health Plan to support the NHS identifying preventing health conditions as a key strand of focus moving forward. Areas for discussion include future frameworks for collaboration between primary care, specialist services and the third sector, options for introducing stricter regulations and levies on non-essential unhealthy foods, and new strategies for prevention and early intervention.
We also expect the agenda to bring out latest thinking on opportunities and practicalities for supporting child development and addressing food-related poverty in relation to objectives outlined in the Tackling Child Poverty: Developing Our Strategy policy paper as the Government develops it’s child poverty strategy.
With the Children’s Wellbeing and School’s Bill currently progressing through Parliament, which includes provisions to make breakfast clubs available before school begins at all primary schools in England and also ensuring existing food standards apply to all state schools, delegates will discuss the way forward for the direction of school meal provision. They will consider free school meal schemes and proposed breakfast clubs, looking as well at options for funding and opportunities more widely for improving children’s health and education on food, with the Faculty of Public Health recommending adoption of universal school meal provision for all primary and secondary school children in England.
With the final report from the FSA’s School Food Standards Compliance Pilot identifying challenges in enforcement, discussion is also expected on strategies moving forward for ensuring compliance with school food standards, including next steps for implementing a standardised follow-up process on areas of non-compliance, and priorities for funding improvements to school kitchens and facilities.
Further sessions will bring out latest thinking on how best to tackle food insecurity and increase the accessibility of affordable, healthy food, particularly in the context of cost-of-living pressures. Challenges around expanding eligibility of free school meal schemes will be discussed, including priorities for reducing inequalities and stigma, as well as identifying at-risk households. Delegates will consider calls from some stakeholders to introduce revised approaches to the current opt-in free school meal model, alongside implications of expanding free school meal provision on school caterers and kitchen facilities, and what is needed to meet demand.
