Findings

HNI inspected 46 primary, 24 secondary and four special schools across 29 local authorities in the 2024 to 25 academic year. Inspection evidence shows a broadly positive picture of statutory compliance, with all inspected schools meeting the statutory duties under the HPN Act. HNI found that all of these schools demonstrated a continued commitment to providing access to free drinking water, promoting school meals including free meal entitlement, and protecting the identity of children and young people receiving them.

Local authorities continue to ensure that catering providers demonstrate commitment to meeting the nutrient standards. 77% of schools inspected met almost all nutrient standards and 81% met almost all food and drink standards. 

However, HNI found too much variability in how consistently food and drink standards are understood and applied by education staff and partners across the school day. Staff were aware of the standards in only 60% of inspected schools, and fewer than half of these schools were applying the standards to food and drinks provided beyond lunchtime. 

Development of whole-school food policies remains limited. Only 10 of the 74 inspected schools had a whole-school food policy in place.

The strongest practice seen was in schools that treated food, health and wellbeing as a shared responsibility across catering, education and the wider community. Examples included catering teams: 

• using taster sessions to encourage children and young people to try new foods
• using clear dining room visuals to support uptake of full meal entitlement
• contributing directly to learning through food safety, practical cookery and farm-to-fork experiences

In some schools, examples included:

• targeted approaches to support some families with nutrition and practical food skills
• whole-school initiatives to remove financial barriers to ensure all children have access to healthy snacks such as free fruit
• partnership working to support nutrition education
• funding used to help support nutrition education such outdoor learning, fruit and vegetable growing, practical food skills, and breakfast clubs

Overall, the evidence suggests that national policy expectations are largely being met in relation to statutory duties but that further work is needed within the education system to secure consistent implementation of the Nutritional Regulations, strengthen staff knowledge and embed whole-school approaches. 

The most effective approaches connect food provision with wider health and wellbeing learning, embed it within a whole-school approach to health promotion, and have strong partnership working, creating a model that can drive improvement across the system.