Setting the Table Guidance: Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment

Stage 1 – planning

What is the aim of your policy/strategy/plan?

Setting the Table: Background

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 to a free meal 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 Quality Criteria 10 of the National Standard for funded ELC (breakfast, lunch or dinner). Settings must have a clear and comprehensive policy for the provision of healthy meals and snacks for children, consistent with the Setting the Table national nutritional guidance, and ensuring that individual cultural and dietary needs are met.

Setting the Table: Guidance Update

In October 2024, the Scottish Government will publish the revised Setting the Table – the nutritional and food standards for early years childcare providers in Scotland, a national guidance publication for food provision in early years childcare provision.

The aim of the guidance is to ensure that all children aged 0–5 in funded or 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 guidance was originally published by NHS Health Scotland (now Public Health Scotland) in 2015 and updated in 2018 to reflect key policy and evidence changes. As a result of the expansion to 1,140 hours of funded ELC and additional changes scientific evidence, the need for a further update was identified. Following a pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and recommendations from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) review on "Feeding young children aged 1 to 5 years”, a Scottish Government-led multi-partner working group was established to update the publication.

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.

Who will it affect (particular groups/businesses/geographies etc)?

The changes made to the Setting the Table guidance through the update, including the revised nutritional and food standards, are expected to have direct positive impact on all children aged 0–5 years in funded or paid for Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) settings, including childminding, across Scotland. The revised guidance will ensure that providers and practitioners are equipped with the necessary advice on how to meet the individual dietary needs of all children in ELC. This includes the provision of food for children who are most likely to be considered at risk of inequalities of outcome caused by socio-economic disadvantage i.e. children from low socio-economic backgrounds or living in poverty.

What outcomes do you expect the policy/strategy/plan to deliver?

The desired outcome of the updated Setting the Table guidance document is to provide up-to-date advice for all Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) providers and practitioners, including childminders and playgroups, on how best to ensure that all children aged 0–5 in ELC settings across Scotland receive meals, snacks and drinks that meet their nutritional requirements and that are conducive to good health.

The updated Setting the Table will continue to support the delivery of benefits for children and families as outlined in the policy aims of expansion to 1,140 hours of funded ELC (updated in the Best Start – strategic early learning and school age childcare plan 2022 to 2026), including:

• children's development improves and the poverty-related outcomes gap narrows
• family wellbeing improves

What is your timeframe for completing the Fairer Scotland Duty assessment?

The Setting the Table: Guidance Update Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment will be completed by October 2024, in line with the planned publication date for the updated guidance document.

Who else will be involved in the assessment and what roles will they play? We’d expect involvement from policy and analytical teams as a minimum. It’s rarely appropriate for one person to conduct the assessment alone.

Scottish Government Fairer Duty Scotland Assessment (FDSA) colleagues have supported the completion of the FDSA to ensure that all required procedures are followed correctly, and to the required standards. Scottish Government analytical colleagues have also supported the production of the FSDA Assessment, providing a view as to the sufficiency of existing evidence, including identifying any gaps and supporting officials to make an informed assessment of the potential impacts of the updated guidance document. Where gaps in evidence have been identified, analytical colleagues have assisted officials with the consideration of commissioning further research.

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 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, as well as 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.

This draft FSDA, along with the Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) and Child Right’s and Wellbeing Assessment (CRWIA), were also shared with organisational representatives from the multi-partner working group as part of the stakeholder engagement process.