Setting the Table Guidance: Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment

Purpose and Intended Effect

Background

In August 2021, the Scottish Government’s expansion to 1,140 funded hours of ELC introduced a universal entitlement to a free meal to all children as part of their ELC day. This entitlement is not based on any eligibility criteria beyond being eligible for funded ELC (3 and 4 year olds and eligible 2 year olds).

Provision of a free meal is a requirement under the National Standard (Criterion 10) for funded ELC (breakfast, lunch or dinner), and settings must have a clear and comprehensive policy for the provision of healthy meals and snacks for children, consistent with Setting the Table, and ensuring that individual cultural and dietary needs are met.

Setting the Table - the national nutritional guidance and food standards for ELC providers in Scotland, aims to ensure that all children aged 0–5 years in funded and paid for childcare settings across Scotland are offered meals, snacks and drinks that meet their nutritional requirements and are conducive to good health. Setting the Table was first published by NHS Health Scotland (now Public Health Scotland) in 2015, before being updated in 2018 to reflect key changes in policy and scientific evidence.

Objective

This is an update to the existing Setting the Table guidance document. The aim of the update to Setting the Table is to ensure that all children aged 0–5 in funded and paid for childcare settings across Scotland are offered meals, snacks and drinks that meet their nutritional requirements and that are conducive to good health. The primary audience of the revised guidance is providers and practitioners, including childminders, delivering funded and paid for ELC. The updated guidance is aimed to be shorter, more concise and easier to follow whilst providing readers with signposting to relevant sector guidance.

Rational for Government Intervention

Following the Scottish Government’s expansion to 1,140 funded hours of ELC, the need for a further update was identified, and a Scottish Government led multi-partner working group was established to refresh the publication. The work of this group was temporarily paused due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and was subsequently reconvened in 2022. The current update has taken account of further changes to scientific evidence, including recommendations from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) review on "Feeding young children aged 1 to 5 years”. The updated guidance has also taken account of Health and Social Care Standards: my support, my life which set out what people should expect when using health, social care or social work services in Scotland. These human rights-based standards should be considered by care providers when planning children’s care, including specific care standards that relate to eating and drinking.