Assuring the quality of UK Local Government services: a case study of school meals catering

In: Public policy and administration: PPA, Band 13, Heft 1, S. 95-106

Abstract

This article analyses the changing nature of quality assurance issues for the UK school meals service and presents the results of research into the impact on this service of the compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) regime. It considers the institutional and policy context within which the school meals service operates and shows how that context has qualified the maxim that the consumer knows best. Schools and their pupils have had little input into contract specifications for the school meals service. However, increased local discretion regarding the nutritional standards of school meals, the decentralisation to schools of responsibility for managing their own budgets and the growth of fast food' catering outlets outwith school premises are, in combination, increasing the power of school managers and of pupils themselves relative to that of the central offices and committees of local education authorities. Hence, the balance of power between different stakeholder groups is changing, so modifying perceptions of what constitutes quality of service.