Health and Nutrition inspections
Health and Nutrition Inspectors (HNI) are permanent staff members of His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education in Scotland (HMIE). They monitor fulfilment of the statutory duties within the Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition) (Scotland) Act 2007.
Deployment of HNIs on school inspections
HNI join a sample of inspections of primary, secondary and special schools across all local authorities in Scotland.
If your school is going to be inspected and has an HNI on the team, you can find more information on what to expect on the Deployment of Health and Nutrition Inspectors (HNIs) on school inspections (PDF, 167KB)
Inspection evidence
HNI works closely with the Scottish Government policy team responsible for school food. Evidence gathered through inspections is used to inform the Scottish Government policy development in this area, including the review of the school food regulations. These regulations apply to food provision across the school day. Health promotion and nutrition monitoring records are available within Food in schools across Scotland. These records are completed routinely to evidence compliance and are provided during inspections.
HNI also support improvement and build capacity in school food provision and food education through sharing inspection findings with schools and local authorities.
Related links
- The Healthy eating in schools statutory guidance (gov.scot) supports the implementation of the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020.
- The Better Eating, Better Learning (education.gov.scot) resource aims to help those at service level in individual schools and catering service providers to ensure that all staff are supported and informed.
- Better eating, better learning: a new context for school food (gov.scot) offers guidance to support schools, local authorities, caterers, procurement departments, parents, children and young people to work in partnership to make further improvements in school food and food education.
- Beyond the school gate: improving food choices in the school community (gov.scot) provides guidance for local authorities, schools, retailers, caterers and other partners on what they can do to influence the food environment around schools and support children and young people to make healthier choices.
- The Healthy eating in schools supplementary guidance (gov.scot) provides additional guidance on diet and nutrition for children and young people with additional support needs.
- Section 3 of the Health Promotion Guidance (gov.scot) provides nutritional guidance for children and young people in residential care settings.
- You can find more resources and case studies about food, health and nutrition by using the search function on the Education Scotland website.
- The Nutritional analysis manual (gov.scot) is a guide to demonstrating compliance with the nutritional requirements for food and drink in schools (Scotland) regulations 2020, revised and updated in February 2021.
- Food in Schools across Scotland (glowscotland.org.uk) is a digital framework for everyone involved in food provision and food as a context for learning in schools across Scotland.