Agenda

Including any notices of motion and any other items of business submitted as urgent for consideration at the meeting.

Members should declare any financial and non-financial interests they have in the items of business for consideration, identifying the relevant agenda item and the nature of their interest.

If any

Minute of the Education, Children and Families Committee of 16 April 2024- submitted for approval as a correct record

Internal Audit Open and Overdue Internal Audit Actions referral from the Governance Risk and Best Value Committee

Internal Audit Update Report June 2024 – referral from the Governance, Risk and Best Value Committee

The City of Edinburgh Council British Sign Language - referral from Policy and Sustainability Committee

Motion by Councillor Young – Food Waste in Schools

“Committee notes:

1.    The importance of providing school meals to children and that for many families this is a vital service in supporting health and wellbeing, and ensuring children receive a healthy and filling meal during times of financial difficulty.

2.    That while the healthy balance of the school lunch menu planning in primary schools is essential, the most important consideration is ensuring that children enjoy their meal and therefore leave a clean plate.

3.    The presentations made by pupils in late 2023 highlighted the potential scale of food waste and some of the influencing reasons for this; and how some schools are tackling the challenge to reduce food going to waste.

4.    That pupils and school catering staff are best placed to provide insight into what works well (both in terms of food item choices but also in how food is cooked) and that simple steps could be taken to address issues highlighted such as the examples given in those presentations.

5.    Uneaten school meals are not only a waste of food itself but is bad for the environment and inefficient for education budgets at a time of financial challenge for the Council.

6.    That while food waste is also an issue for secondary schools, the ‘menu planning’ approach in primary schools means it is appropriate to look at improvements with these schools as a first step.

Committee therefore:

a.    Asks education and catering officers to set up a consultee forum to help influence future menu planning and food selection, with members to include pupils and catering staff, and that this should be representative of different schools sizes, catering provisions, and age/gender for pupils. That this forum should meet in a way to make participation as accessible as possible.

b.    Instructs education officers to contact all primary school head teachers:

                        i.         Requesting information on average volume of food waste being generated daily/weekly

                       ii.         Enquiring if catering staff can share insight into what meals routinely generate more waste.

                      iii.         Asking if pupils (potentially through the pupil councils) can share their views on what works and doesn’t work in their school meals

                     iv.         Inviting a representative from their pupil council to be nominated as a potential member of the new forum (with final members being selected from those nominated and schools changing on an annual basis)

c.     Requests a report back to the September committee with the results from head teacher engagement and providing details on the proposed plans for holding regular meetings of the new forum from the start of the next academic year, and how these will be able influence menu planning.”

Motion by Councillor Burgess – 1.5 Max Global Schools Climate Summit

“Committee:

Congratulates pupils and teachers from Edinburgh and the Lothians who took part in the recent 1.5 Max Global Schools Climate Summit that saw around 300 children from schools across four countries - Scotland, Malawi, Nepal and Bangladesh – meet online to share their experiences and projects on the global climate emergency;

Notes that the summit was achieved in cooperation with Sustainability Partnerships organisation and reported on STV and featuring pupils from James Gillespie’s High School https://tinyurl.com/bdky4ner;

Recognises that working in partnership with pupils in climate-vulnerable countries makes pupils appreciate how important their efforts are and the positive impact on young people’s climate anxiety;

Welcomes this groundbreaking Learning for Sustainability taking place in Edinburgh schools which has been boosted through this year’s Council budget decision to continue protecting half-a-day for one teacher in every school in Edinburgh to be a Sustainability Champion and looks forward to further projects coming out of Edinburgh’s schools.”