Implementation and Monitoring Working Party meeting 23 January 2007

Phil Morgan opened the meeting by welcoming all the members. Apologies had been received from Jeremy Corson, Anne Bull, Nia Rees Williams and Liz Dowling.

It was agreed, in light of some additional comments received from one member of the group, that the minutes of the last meeting would be re-circulated (with suggested amendments) for consideration. In the circumstances, the draft minutes will not be endorsed as a true and accurate record until the next meeting.

Updates on actions arising from the last meeting were as follows:

• There is, as yet, no nomination from the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) for Sue Mably
• Translation of information on FSA website – Members were provided with an update regarding the Agency’s commitment to provide advice and information in bilingual form where appropriate. Discussions were ongoing within the Agency to establish an in house translation service. This would, among other things, have responsibility for ensuring the websites were compliant with the Welsh Language Scheme
• Maureen Howell advised that the workload panel have been consulted on Appetite for Life
• Nia Rees Williams is to temporarily replace Andrea Basu on the Implementation and Monitoring Working Party (IMWP) during Andrea’s time abroad

David Smith asked for an update on the NAtional Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) proposals. Phil Morgan advised that the Agency Board have agreed the proposal to operate the survey on an annual rolling programme basis for 2008/09 and UK funding arrangements were finalised in principle. The arrangements provide for enhancement of the sample sizes across Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales subject to the necessary funds being found by each country. In Wales, a bid for additional funding for a range of the Agency’s work including NDNS was in preparation. This would be submitted to the Assembly in the next week or so. There had been preliminary and encouraging discussions between officials as to the value of enhancing the national sample size. Lindsey Kearton asked for an update on the Low Income Diet and Nutrition Survey (LIDNS) programme. Phil Morgan reported that the draft report was at a very advanced stage.

Phil Morgan welcomed Laura Davis to the meeting and invited her to give a brief introduction to the study and the key conclusions. Laura began by advising that the report that had been circulated to members prior to the meeting was a preliminary working draft: a full version (with annexes) should be available by the end of January. She went on to briefly speak about the approach the evaluation team had taken and to highlight the main conclusions reached. She invited the Group, in its deliberations, to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the draft and to recommend any revisions where appropriate. She asked if Members would find it helpful to have a case study Annex. Finally she indicated that although not specifically part of the commission that Warwick had identified and included several recommendations.

In preliminary discussion Members posed several questions, and sought clarification on certain points, in particular:

• Rob Pickard queried the definition used for pre-obese (taken from the Health Behaviour of School Aged Children Survey produced by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO)
• Gaynor Bussell asked about the status of the new 'Quality of Food' initiative – was this a successor strategy to Food and Well Being (FWB)
• David Smith expressed some concerns that the report appeared not to fully capture or appreciate the full extent of the work done across the voluntary sector or that the recommendations offered any particularly new direction

At this point Laura Davis then withdrew to allow the Group to discuss the report in detail.

Phil Morgan began by reminding Members that this evaluation was a specific milestone in FWB and invited them to indicate whether they considered the report was factually accurate, balanced and met with the terms of the commission.

Members expressed a broad range of views including:

• an acknowledgement that the general landscape in Wales had changed since the launch of FWB, and whether in light of new initiatives (including, most recently, the Quality of Food Strategy) this should be viewed as a mid term report or not
• did the draft adequately and accurately convey the progress achieved toward the range of targets and milestones set out in FWB?
• were the views reported in the document intended to reflect verbatim accounts of the interviews with participants?
• a question about clarity of ownership of FWB and the nutrition agenda more broadly
• the reported relationships between the key players – was this described in the report?
• should IMWP continue to exist?

In addressing the key questions the consensus appeared to be:

• Does the report cover all aspects and expectations? – Yes, it is a good objective summarised assessment
• Has it been a worthwhile exercise? – Yes, it has got cross party support and is worthwhile in encouraging people to continue working in this area and people feel valued. It also established connections between people and strategies i.e. Food and Fitness in Wales
• Is FWB still on track? – Yes, but there is still lots to do. New strategies have superseded it on certain areas and there is the increased importance of physical activity
• Is it worth the IMWP continuing in its own degree of authority? – Yes, it is worth continuing in its current guise
• What are the matters of concern and the solutions imposed? – There are problems of regional government with Food Standards Agency Wales (FSAW) namely that of suspicion of the FSA from Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) employees. Policy from FSAW looks at difficulties where FSA UK has to be looked at nationally and FSAW cannot be subsumed into WAG: the FSA function in Wales needs addressing e.g. allegiance to the centre (England) and who is responsible for specific areas? It is not possible to get FSAW into WAG control and this will impact on support received. The CMO working as a champion is not sufficient. There are problems working with food chain and manufacturing sectors and a need to put customer first in commercial areas. Diet Activity and Health needs a cross-cutting committee to represent all departmental aspects where the CMO cannot undertake it on its own. Getting involved and engaged with Industry (i.e. DEFRA and food chain) is not necessarily politically / strategically correct. There is a real need for authority of a Food Council Committee to include DEFRA, WAG, FSA, Department for Transport and so on. All existing strategies could feed into this committee. Criticism of the big four grows as they are now becoming a local retailer by positioning themselves at garages and railways. Somerfield is the biggest retailer in Wales so there is a greater need to speak closely with them and a need to know how Maureen sees hierarchy of strategies to get sight of an overarching one

Laura then rejoined the meeting and the following preliminary observations were offered on particular aspects of the report:

• page 59 relationships between WAG and FSA needs clarifying for accuracy
• report adequately capturing education and citizen empowerment recognising role education provides in wider agenda adequate capacity within workforce to take forward nutrition agenda. Conspicuous by its absence. Perception of food education needs to be strengthened. Were the right people interviewed?
• engagement with industry has to happen at UK level but there is more scope to be held at Wales level – theme 3 of recommendations
• funding of local food projects highlighted five years not three is mentioned
• workforce re-skilling? interviewing
• quotes – balance them out if there is another side that was made. WAG / FSAW & IMWG
• recommendations not covering new ground so that needs to be stated

Conclusion
The final draft report would be circulated as soon as it became available. All members were encouraged to provide written comments as soon as they were able.

Teresa introduced this topic. Currently, limited work is being taken forward in this area. FSA’s main actions have been in contribution to the Keep Well This Winter (KWTW) campaign, and Maureen mentioned that WLGA have yet to progress action in the Healthy Ageing action plan on meals on wheels but that the WAG was defining next years programme budgets so they could start work on issues being raised.

Specific issues that were raised included the importance of maintaining independent living in the community – evidence of older people often entering hospitals malnourished, and what happens to them when they leave? Lindsey mentioned the Welsh Consumer Council (WCC) food poverty report which highlighted food poverty is a real issue for vulnerable / elderly groups and more needs to be done in this area. There was some discussion as to whether clinical malnutrition tools could be transposed into the community.

Lindsey advised that there is the intention within the WCC to conduct follow-up work in this area, which is being backed by Age Concern. Particular aspects mentioned included the need to highlight rural aspects and the importance of local shops working together to forge improvement. There is too much focus on larger supermarkets offering healthier options when encouragement is needed for businesses to offer better choice and delivery and so on. Also, food mapping needs to be brought down to community level. Lindsey was also aware that local authorities are pushing intergenerational work quite hard.

Members discussed how addressing the needs of older people could be taken forward, and it was agreed that scoping work is required. One proposal was to hold a further meeting and invite a series of speakers to present on relevant issues to allow the group to formulate a strategy linked to the NDNS data from over 65’s free living. This work must also link with the work Linda Davies is taking forward.

The Welsh Assembly Government intends that, from 2008, there exists in Wales:

• a single coherent framework for curriculum, assessment and qualifications 3–19 which will help schools to raise standards of achievement and widen educational opportunity
• a set of revised subject Orders which are manageable and reflect whole curriculum characteristics and those of each key stage

A series of consultation exercises has been launched as part of the Wales 2008 review. Consultation packs containing the proposals of the Minister for Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills for revised national curriculum subject. Orders have been sent out to schools and interested organisations. Parallel consultations have also been launched on:

• a revised framework for personal and social education
• a framework for careers and the world of work
• a non-statutory skills framework
• a national exemplar framework for religious education
• the Foundation Phase framework for children’s learning

These proposals support the Government’s aims to ensure that the new school curriculum, assessment and qualifications arrangements will promote an approach that is more learner-centred and skills-focussed and that builds on the Foundation Phase and links effectively with the 14–19 Learning Pathways programme. The revised subject Orders and the frameworks for personal and social education and careers and the world of work should help deliver the Government’s wider aims, including the promotion of:

• better transition from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 3
• education for sustainable development and global citizenship
• the world of work and entrepreneurship
• healthy eating and physical activity

The Minister would like the curriculum to be more learner focused and therefore the schools need to have increased flexibility to fit around their specific learners. More skills focus is also needed across the curriculum as the 2002 showed it was too content heavy. Anne identified four skills which are to be highlighted across the curriculum: developing thinking, developing communication, developing ICT and developing numbers. These will be combined with problem solving, managing our learning and performance, and working with others to tie all the details together across the 3-19 ages.
The summary document can be downloaded as a pdf file from the Welsh Assembly Government website.

David Smith asked Anne about the statutory requirements and she advised that Design and Technology is compulsory for 7-14 year olds. Anne also stated that the Personal and Social Education framework will contain a whole school approach to food and health and that while it will be designed as a whole package that there are no plans to change the national curriculum order and subjects at this time. She continued by saying that specific food and fitness guidance will also be provided and that the Appetite for Life Strategy will fit into the Food and Fitness Implementation plan.

In light of the information received on the Curriculum review, Phil Morgan asked members what the sub-group would like to do in response to WAG consultation, and if they would like another meeting with or without DELLS presence. Phil and Sarah Rowles agreed that they would lead on a draft response but would set aside a date in March in case it was required.

The Chair proposed the date for the next meeting to be Monday 26 March 2007. Members will report back at a later date to confirm their availability.