New expectations have been placed on schools to ensure that food consumed in school meets national standards from this September. A key change is that schools need to not only promote healthy packed lunches but, for the first time, there is an expectation that they monitor what parents are providing. Whilst there are very good reasons behind this, I am very concerned about this being yet another area where schools are expected to police parents' behaviour and has the potential to create conflict. This policy now makes it clear that failure to provide a balanced nutritious lunch could be seen as a safeguarding issue and places an expectation on school leaders to work with parents to make improvements; we are told that Ofsted will be inspecting this.

We want to follow a common sense approach and focus on giving parents the information they need to make good decisions. We know that this is not nearly as simple as booklets and government directives would suggest. You may have a child who has a limited diet for genuine reasons, you may be on a tight budget and can't afford the ingredients, you may know that your child simply won't eat the suggested foods. We suggest the starting point is reducing and substituting sweet items such as chocolate bars and cakes, as these are the most obvious problem nutritionally.

Lincolnshire Food in School Team have produced a booklet you can download with simple, clear information and suggestions to help you; please download it and use it as guidance when you are planning packed lunches.