General – ASSIST FM

ASSIST FM Cleaning Scholarship: Celebrating Future Leaders in Local Authority Cleaning Services

Yesterday marked a proud moment for ASSIST FM as we celebrated the achievements of our group of 18 scholars, each representing a different Scottish Local Authority. These rising stars in Local Authority Cleaning Services came together for their final leadership session, followed by a celebratory lunch and closing ceremony, kindly hosted by Fife Council at the beautiful Glen Pavilion in Dunfermline.

A Day of Growth and Reflection

The final leadership session, led by Lisa Rogers from We Are Extraordinary Training, focused on Building Resilience and Wellbeing. This impactful session was the perfect conclusion to a 12-week programme designed and delivered by our British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc) training partners.

The programme combined online learning with practical application, covering essential topics such as:

Environmental Awareness
Robotics in Cleaning
The Science of Cleaning
Calculating and Costing Cleaning Operations

Denise Hanson, BICSc’s Commercial Director, supported each scholar throughout the programme, which included content tailored to address the unique challenges of Local Authority Cleaning Services.

Honouring Success

During the closing ceremony, Chris Ross, Chair of ASSIST FM, presented certificates to the scholars, commending their dedication and achievements. He also extended heartfelt thanks to our incredible training partners and the generous support of our sponsors: Alliance Local, Unico Direct, Instock, Bunzl, Arrow County Supplies, and GMC Corsehill. Their contributions made this scholarship programme a reality.

Chris concluded the event by encouraging the scholars to return their newly acquired skills and insights to their workplaces, inspiring change and innovation within their teams.

Exceptional Feedback and Gratitude

The feedback from scholars has been overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the programme’s value in equipping participants with practical skills and renewed confidence.

Special thanks go to Melanie and her team for their outstanding hospitality. The venue and catering were exceptional, adding to the day’s success.

As we look ahead, ASSIST FM remains committed to fostering growth, resilience, and excellence within Local Authority Cleaning Services. Congratulations to our scholars—future leaders who are set to make a real difference in their communities.

ASSIST FM has been delighted to team up with key supplier partner McCain Foods to bring a suite of free resources to schools across Scotland which tell the farm to fork journey story. A key focus area of ASSIST FM this year has been to support and celebrate sustainability initiatives, not just by our members but also our suppliers. McCain has recently partnered with education content provider Earth Cubs to create an animated film and lesson plan, bringing the story of farm to fork to life. The resources provided by Earth Cubs explain sustainable farming methods in a way that is fun and interesting for pupils. The resources are primarily focused at primary aged pupils and will be updated regularly with new and exciting materials exploring soil health and environmental impact across farming, transport, manufacturing and packaging.

National Chair Nicky Joiner said:

“It has been great to work with the team at McCain – their shared vision for a sustainable future fits with the ethos of celebrating success in Local Authority supply chains to continually improve products to our pupils. Education of such an important topic is vital to ensuring the next generation have the knowledge to make informed choices on the provenance and sustainability of foods they may choose to eat. The videos provided by Earth Cubs are such an easy watch for younger pupils and I’m sure will be used widely by education colleagues across Local Authorities”

Rosie Tootell, Sustainability Director, McCain Foods GB

“Founded by a family of farmers, agriculture is at the heart of our business, and we are committed to ensuring that farming is sustainable for the future. As part of this commitment, we are partnering with our growers to implement regenerative agriculture practices across 100% of our potato acreage by 2030. We are delighted to be sharing our on the ground experience with young people through Earth Cubs.”

What is McCain doing?

So, what is regenerative agriculture? We define it as an ecosystem-based approach to farming that aims to improve farmer resilience, yield, and quality by improving and restoring soil health, enhancing biodiversity, and reducing the impact of chemicals on the environment.

McCain’s ambitious aim for 2030

We are committed that 100% of our potato crop will involve regenerative agricultural practices by the end of the decade. Regenerative agricultural practices will help secure the quality and quantity of our crop into the future. And that means we should be able to access a reliable supply of the very best potato products for our consumers.

You can find out more here about our broad approach – https://www.mccain.co.uk/sustainability/smart-sustainable-farming/

All school resources can be found below – these are a great resource for sharing with schools and a great link to the sustainable supply chain within Local Authority Caterers – please do share these with education colleagues!

Quick link to Earth Cubs video episode on YouTube – A Potato’s Dream=

View the episode and further resources on Earth Cubs – register for free

Find out more about McCain Foods GB – Earth Cubs

ParentPay Group’s Regional School Meals Report surveys parents from all four UK regions for the first time

Following on from the launch of the National School Meals Report in July, this landmark study provides a detailed regional breakdown of parents’ and carers’ views on school meal services across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Now in its fourth year, this research helps support local school caterers in making informed decisions on their catering operation.

Key highlights include:

At least 49% of pupils in every region choosing school meal provision every day. London has the highest percentage uptake at 73% of primary school pupils, aided by the roll-out of London UPFSM.
In Wales and Scotland, 45% of parents’ pre-order their child’s school meals, which has increased from 31% and 32% respectively since 2023. This demonstrates the continual investment in technology and parent engagement taken by school meal providers.
Nearly half of all parents also feel that allergens and special dietary requirements are managed appropriately by their school, with 58% of parents in England answering ‘Yes, completely’ when asked about management.

Keith Bell, managing director for ParentPay Group’s Catering and Payments business units, commented: ‘I’m delighted to be continually bringing this valuable research to the school catering industry. The feedback ParentPay Group received from the launch of the National report was fantastic, and we hope being able to see results by region will continue to be beneficial for schools and caterers. I’m also pleased to say that this report features a dedicated breakdown from respondents in Northern Ireland for the first time, with 4,252 parents completing the survey. We hope this helps to provide valuable insights for school meal providers in this region.’

When discussing allergy management, a surveyed parent from Scotland added: “The school is very supportive with my child’s allergy and have kept me included in all harm reduction practices put in place. The school always contact me with any concerns, and I have faith that the school do their best to keep my child safe.”

The Regional School Meals report contains valuable insights and contributions from LACA England, LACA Wales, ASSIST FM, and the EANI as representatives for each region. Judith Gregory, chair of LACA and contributor for LACA Wales said ‘LACA proposed new questions for 2024 to further help school caterers understand the parent view of school meal provision, including how the use of local ingredients may impact the uptake of school meals, and how much respondents are paying on average for a school meal per day. Parents in Wales with secondary school-aged children are paying the most, with 66% spending more that £2.80 per meal – this will be a useful benchmark to track year on year. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the contributors from LACA, ASSIST FM, and the EANI for their input in pulling together this report, demonstrating the continual effort to ensure school meal providers have as much data as possible on their local meal service.’

The research covers themes such as:

School meal uptake
Ways to increase meal uptake
The average amount spent and price rating of a school meal
Allergy and special diet management
Parent information and what they’d like to see more of
Views on sustainability and locally sourced ingredients

You can access the full report here.

What an exciting start to the first-ever ASSIST FM Cleaning Scholarship! Last week our inaugural group of 18 scholars, representing 18 different Scottish Local Authorities, gathered for their first session, kindly hosted by Scotland Excel at Renfrewshire House in Paisley.

The session opened with a warm welcome from Chris Ross, Chair of ASSIST FM, who emphasised the need for this scholarship following the success of the HITS scholarship programme. Recognising the importance of extending such opportunities to the cleaning sector of FM Services, the Cleaning with Class group partnered with the British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc) and We Are Extraordinary Training to design a bespoke training programme. This programme offers a blend of in-person and online sessions tailored to meet the current challenges in Local Authority Cleaning Services.

Denise Hanson, Commercial Director at BICSc, started the day by outlining the key elements of the BICSc training. She guided the group through signing up to the BICSc community and online learning platform, and distributed valuable training resources to help them on their journey.

In the afternoon, Lisa Rogers, Director of Growth Development, led two leadership sessions. The first focused on understanding personal leadership styles, while the second explored how to motivate teams and foster employee engagement

This scholarship has been made possible thanks to the generous support of our fantastic cleaning suppliers, including Alliance Local, Unico Direct, Instock, Bunzl, Arrow County Supplies, and GMC Corsehill.

We wish our 18 scholars the best of luck as they embark on this rewarding training journey!

The Scottish Government have set out a vision for Scotland to be “a Good Food Nation, where people from every walk of life take pride and pleasure in, and benefit from, the food they produce, buy, cook, serve, and eat each day.”

Local Authority Caterers (LAC) are at the front line of the Good Food Nation’s ambitions. Their work shaping public food systems is a key linchpin in the delivery of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act (GFNA).

This paper sets out the 6 outcomes of the GFNA and highlights the work, sometimes hidden by Local Authorities, to deliver on these outcomes.

It also explores the limitations of Local Authorities and the challenges surrounding sustainable and long-term funding, amongst a landscape of extremely challenging financial outlooks by many.

The passion of individuals working in the industry should be celebrated and spoken about more widely, their engagement with the next generation will ensure that Scotland can truly be a Good Food Nation.

Download Full Digital Document >>

International School Meals Day: the caterer innovations that have made Scottish school meals better

This International School Meals Day, Food for Life Scotland and ASSIST FM are celebrating the inspiring innovation of Scotland’s school caterers, who, despite external pressures, work tirelessly every day to provide a high quality, nutritionally balanced and sustainably sourced school meal.

Around 450,000 meals are served every day across Scotland’s 32 Local Authorities. In 15 local authorities, those meals meet the Food for Life Served Here award standards at either Bronze, Silver or Gold. The award has a long history in Scotland, with the first Scottish local authority – East Ayrshire – receiving the certification in 2008.

Across the school meals sector, caterers continue to evolve and innovate – providing services well beyond a meal on a plate!

Good food on school meal plates

Scotland has the most stringent school food standards of any UK nation. The Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (2020) sets out the amount of salt, sugars and fats recommended in school meals along with building on a health promoting culture with the school community.
The amount of Scottish produce featured on school meals continues to grow year on year, with all local authorities building strong relationships with both local and national suppliers to provide the highest quality produce to pupils.

Many school caterers and local authority catering teams in Scotland show their commitment to fresh, local and sustainable school food by achieving the Food for Life Served Here award at Bronze, Silver or Gold. A Food for Life Served Here award is a nationally recognised mark of quality.

If you see a Food for Life Served Here logo you know that the majority of the food on the menu will be freshly prepared, and it will always be free from undesirable trans fats, sweeteners, and additives. Caterers making Food for Life Served Here-certified meals use free-range eggs and farm assured meat that can be traced back to the source, as well as ingredients from sustainable and ethical sources.

Through Universal Free School Meals (P1-P5), caterers have been working hard to deliver even more lunches than ever before to Scottish pupils, ensuring a wide and varied choice is available to schools and building life and social skills through shared dining. Caterers use pupil and parental feedback to help shape services for many years to come.
Local authorities are finding innovative ways to include more organic produce on school meals menus. FFLSH Gold award holder East Ayrshire Council’s partnership with local organic farm Mossgiel Farm not only means that primary school pupils in East Ayrshire receive local, organic milk, but also involves an innovative approach to reducing waste, with milk dispensers installed in schools reducing the need for plastic containers.
East Lothian Council achieved the FFLSH Silver award by buying organic flour from Mungoswells Malt and Milling, based in Drem East Lothian. The catering team balanced the cost by working with the Food for Life Scotland team to make savings in other areas of the menu. This fantastic example of innovation shows what’s possible in delivering great Scottish school food that supports health, the environment and the local economy.

The role of the Caterer

Catering teams are an integral part of the whole school approach to health and wellbeing. They are at the front line, ensuring that our children and young people are given the right facts and information on the importance of making positive food and drink choices as they develop and grow. School catering teams are some of the most passionate in the hospitality industry, many of them spending their entire careers devoted to public service.

For many school pupils, their school meal could be the only hot meal they have that day. School caterers take this responsibility seriously, finding ways to support every pupil that uses their school meals service. In Food for Life Served Here Bronze award holder Inverclyde, for example, nursery staff at Newark Primary School provide a table setting for each of their nursery pupils each lunchtime. They decorate the table with a vase and artificial flowers and sit with the children, who enjoy the meal together. For many pupils, their main opportunity to share a meal in this way is at school.
The schools catering service does not simply end at lunchtime. It contributes in numerous less visible ways to the local community. Local Authority caterers are proud to support local suppliers. They also contribute to the creation of local employment and community wealth building – research shows for every £1 spent on school meals a minimum of £3 is returned to the local community, while every £1 invested in Food for Life brings a social return on investment of £4.41.

New ideas

Technology now forms a large part of school meals services, keeping them sustainable and agile – systems such as online ordering, cashless catering and pre-ordering in both high schools and primary schools, helps to reduce waste and removes stigma from the lunch service. Modern cooking technology is used in kitchens to create healthier recipes. And Food for Life Served Here Bronze award holder Argyll and Bute Council have even trialled using drones to deliver school meals to its island-based schools.
Caterers work closely with suppliers to innovate and adapt products. All local authorities are continually looking at removing packaging waste (for example by using re-usable vegetable crates or swapping to cornstarch veg netting). And caterers are innovating and adapting with the recipes themselves. Caterers serving FFLSH meals served farm assured meat, which may cost more – so they take a less but better meat approach to their school meals menu, working closely with the FFLS menu and catering skills team to adapt dishes by removing some of the meat and replacing it with things like pulses. Costs are reduced while dishes remain fresh, nutritious – and delicious!
The service has a wider role in supporting positive community benefits such as supporting school growing projects, working with schools, teaching pupils culinary skills and food provenance, supporting the local community through food larders and skills training hubs and working out with term time to support holiday clubs and activity programmes. For example, in Stirling – which holds the FFLSH Silver award – caterers at Dunblane Primary School run a Chef’s Apprentice Programme, bringing P6 pupils into the kitchen to learn skills including fresh food preparation and baking.

Hands on Hungry Blog by Chairperson Sheryl McKiddie, Food & Nutrition Manager, Tayside Contracts

We can’t believe we are three months into another year already, 2023 was a quick year but Hands on Hungry still managed to sink their teeth into meaningful engagements both as a group and with external stakeholders such as ProVeg, Quality Meat Scotland and the Health & Nutrition Inspection Team.

The highlights for 2023 were:

HNI Q&A Session which I think and hope all that attended found useful and now we plan to make this a regular thing I think it will be beneficial to how we move forward in terms of working in partnership with the HNI team.
Bringing together 2 sub-groups to pull together a HNI Catering Guide to support our catering colleagues in knowing what to expect when they are being inspected and some using hints and tips to aid them along the way so watch this space for this coming out!
Forecasting session with Brakes, Green Gourmet & Quorn – Forecasting volumes and managing the timescales with menu changes is always a challenge so this session allowed our members to ask the nitty gritty on what the suppliers and manufacturers expectations are and where we go moving forward. I for one have welcomed this new knowledge and know my team will find the supporting tools provided of great benefit!
Hot topics of the year has definitely been HNI & Adapted Menus/Special Dietary Requirements.
Quarterly Meetings – Our meetings have been well attended with great discussion and sharing of problems as well as solutions. Our guest speakers in 2023 included:
Quality Meat Scotland
ProVeg
HNI Team

Priorities for 2024:

Continue sharing best practices
Continue work with national menu template
Continue work with HNI Inspections
Feed into specialist menus group and help establish best practise guidelines for all

Cleaning with Class

Blog by Chairperson, Anne Goldie

Facilities Services Manager, South Lanarkshire Council

The Cleaning with Class Group had a very busy 2023 and has a lot of momentum and excitement going forward in 2024. Memberships increased and therefore, attendance at the quarterly meetings did also, which meant that all of our meetings were super beneficial and extremely informative.

The highlights for 2023 were:

Cleaning with Class were finalists in the European Cleaning And Hygiene Awards 2023 in the category “Best Initiative Raising the Profile of the Cleaning Sector”.

It was an honour to attend the glittering awards ceremony which took place in the beautiful Mansion House in Dublin on 5th October 2023.

Although we did not lift the trophy this year it was a massive achievement to reach the final as the awards received a record number of entries. The judges reviewed over 230 nominations with 49 finalists across 10 categories.

See more details of the winners and finalists in the link below:

Awards | European Cleaning And Hygiene Awards (echawards.com)

Attendance at the UK’s premier cleaning and hygiene event “Cleaning Show 2023” in Excel in London in March 2023. The show was packed with business opportunities, innovative products, industry speakers and over 70 exhibitors. This gives a great opportunity to network and share ideas with the group.

Journey to Cobotics/Robotics – Highland Council – inspiration for our Local Authorities to follow.

Quarterly Meetings – Our meetings have been well attended with great discussion and sharing of problems as well as solutions. Our guest speakers in 2023 included :

- Sandra Williamson – REHIS
- Angie McCarty – Scotland Excel
- David Harkness – Benefits – South Lanarkshire Council ( Autumn Seminar)
- As well as our many members who have presented throughout the year!

ASSIST FM members can access the meeting minutes over on the Resource Site.

Priorities for 2024:

Continue to grow Cleaning & FM services Profile
Establish a Data Collection/Sharing Group
Attend Cleaning Show – 2024 Manchester Cleaning Show register now
Continue to share best practices and collectively work together to find solutions

As we bid farewell to 2023, let’s take a moment to look back at some of the highlights and milestones that made this year one to remember.

Over the past 12 months, we have been providing support to our members and partner organisations as well as promoting and enhancing service delivery for public sector organisations in Scotland. Here are some of the highlights:

ASSIST FM Conference 2023

The ASSIST FM ‘What’s your reality?’ conference, sponsored by Müller Milk & Ingredients, took place in May at the Hilton Glasgow and focused on the future of the facilities management industry and explored the reality of what lies ahead.

We had a fantastic lineup of 55 exhibitors made up of long-time partners, recurring suppliers and new suppliers who brought real innovation to the public sector. We also had the opportunity to hear from fantastic speakers on a range of topics and our Keynote speaker was the wonderful Cor Hutton who shared an inspiring story that left everyone on a high!

We held our annual Local Authority Cook of the Year (LACOTY) competition to determine the menu for the Conference’s Gala Dinner. Six Local Authorities competed at The Braehead Cook School in March. The judges Willie Pike and Bruce Sangster selected the top three dishes (Best starter, main, and dessert), and the 3 finalists went head-to-head at the Glasgow Hilton with Nicola Arnold from Edinburgh Council announced as the winner of the LACOTY competition during the Gala Dinner. The LACOTY competition continues to be a resounding success!

The Gala Dinner, hosted by ASSIST FM’s very own Keith Breasley, featured an awards ceremony where 10 National Awards were presented.

Parliamentary Event

The ASSIST FM Committee had a fantastic day in October at The Scottish Parliament in partnership with Food for Life Scotland.

“It’s a pleasure to work in partnership with Food for Life (FFL) and to celebrate the school food heroes who go above and beyond in the community in which they serve,” shared Chris Ross, Chair of ASSIST FM.

Autumn Seminar

In November, we hosted the Autumn Seminar where invited partners presented their latest innovative products. The event welcomed all 32 Local Authorities FM employees for a day filled with seminars, break-out activities, and an exceptional lunch provided by Fife Council at the Glen Pavilion.

Exciting news to wrap up the year!

Christopher Ross has been recognised as one of the Top 20 Most Influential People in public sector catering.

The list comprises people who are the industry’s leading lights based on their ability to represent the concerns of people working in the sector, as well as their capacity to drive change. They cover schools, universities, hospitals, the care sector, prisons and catering colleges. Congratulations Chris, we are so proud of you!

A heartfelt thank you to everyone for your continuous support and for making this year unforgettable! We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and look forward to the exciting journey that we will be undertaking in 2024.

All schools and nurseries in East Ayrshire county council have joined a pioneering scheme to use more local, organic and unprocessed food for meals. The scheme, supported also by the Scottish Executive, costs an extra 10-15p for each of 8-9,000 lunches served on school days.

An independent report for the local authority, meanwhile, estimated that benefits such as lower food miles, extra employment and income for the local economy and reduced future health risks (especially cancers) were worth six times the project’s cost.