Setting the Table Guidance: Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment

Consultation

Sense Check

A draft version of the revised Setting the Table guidance was completed in March 2024. A consultation (Sense Check) exercise, which ran between February and March 2024, sought a view on the draft document from key stakeholders of the multi-partner working group members leading on the update to the guidance document and input from wider sector contacts with relevant expertise. Members were asked to invited feedback on presentation, comprehensibility for users, and any perceived issues with practical implementation across the sector. Members of the multi-partner working group included Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland (PHS), Food Standards Scotland (FSS), Care Inspectorate (CI), Education Scotland (ES), National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA), Early Years Scotland (EYS), Scottish Childminding Association (SCMA), National Health Service (NHS), and Local Authority catering leads in Scotland. A range of relevant Scottish Government policy leads were also invited to provide feedback on the full draft guidance document. Responses were received from the following Scottish Government policy areas: Best Start Foods, Circular Economy, Diet and Healthy Weight, Financial Wellbeing, Food, Marketing, Insight, Brand Scotland and Internal Comms, Religious beliefs and faiths, Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme, Supporting Maternal and Child Wellbeing, School Meals and School Milk, and Zero Waste Delivery. The Chief Medical Officer, Deputy Chief Medical Officer with responsibility for Public Health, and Senior Medical Advisor for Paediatrics were also invited to provide feedback on the draft document.

To ensure that the views of children and young people are appropriately reflected in the considerations of this guidance review as well as the wider policy, the approach to direct engagement with children has been to utilise existing channels through inspectorates^[1][2] and work already undertaken by sector representative bodies, as well as through the analysis of existing evidence and research which captures the views and interests of children. This updated guidance includes advice to ELC settings about approaches to engagement with, and the involvement of, children and families in the menu planning process. Members of the multi-partner working group who maintain close working contact with providers and practitioners in ELC also considered sector needs as part of the guidance review.

The results from the Sense Check exercise were used to inform the finalisation of the updated guidance document. Key findings regarding potential impacts on business, and the agreed responses, are detailed below: