Training and Accreditation

Briefing on Canteen Accreditation Forum

Wednesday 16 September 2009
Facilitator	Deirdre Love	President, ACT School Canteen Association
Speakers	Ben Yuen	Curriculum support P-12, Department of Education & Training
	Sarah Seymour	Canteen Management Training Program, (CIT)

The following is a summary of the information provided, questions, answers and general discussion. Any inaccuracies are innocent mistakes, and are not an attempt to re-write events.

Opening Comments and Overview by Ben Yuen

• Ben Yuen handed out a summary of the Canteen Accreditation process, known by the acronym DETSCA (Department of Education & Training School Canteen Accreditation).
• All States and Territories in Australia now have some kind of system in place to promote healthy school canteens. The system being designed for the ACT is an attempt to draw on the best elements of other packages in other states.
• Ben emphasised the role the school canteen plays in learning. The Department of Education embraces the concept of learning as a whole-of-life experience, not just something that occurs in classrooms between 9am and 3pm. Therefore the canteen, as a child-focussed service within schools has a valuable role in reinforcing the health messages taught in the classroom. Accreditation is trying to help schools and canteens develop mutually compatible, mutually reinforcing healthy messages (and healthy food) for children.
• Accreditation will be a self-assessing process. A "tool" for Self Assessment will be provided. This will take the form of a booklet and a CD from which relevant pages can be printed for submission. There will be seven areas of canteen operation covered. Canteens will need to work through each section to check that their practices comply, modify their practices where necessary, and provide documentary evidence where required.
• The seven sections remain as:
  1. Canteen Policy and Management
  2. Canteen and the Classroom
  3. Marketing and Promotion
  4. Food Safety and Hygiene
  5. Occupational Health & Safety
  6. Environmental Awareness
  7. Foods Sold
• Section 7 "Foods Sold" is the only section to change significantly. There are major revisions being prepared for this section, and this is the cause of the slow roll-out of accreditation information and documentation. In short, the "Foods Sold" section is going to be based on the "Traffic Light" system of food categorisation.
• In the midst of the preparation work in the ACT, a new national programme called the National Healthy School Canteens Project was commissioned by the Commonwealth Government. This is an on-going process which will not be completed until April-May 2010, in which a food categorisation system for school canteens is being designed. The ACT Government has committed to adopting this new national system. This may delay finalisation of the accreditation.
• Canteens must meet all legal requirements for a food business (licensing, OH&S, etc).
• To begin the accreditation process the canteen manager must complete the CIT Canteen Management Training Program.
• Due to the delay in completing the Self Assessment Tool the deadline previously given to schools to achieve accreditation (2009) will be adjusted to 2010. Ben undertook to organise an All-Principals Bulletin to be circulated confirming this.
• Canteens were encouraged to continue getting their Managers through the training programme at CIT in readiness for the next step (self-assessment), even though the Self-Assessment Tool is not yet available.

Questions and Feedback

Recognition of Prior Learning

• Representatives of the CIT training course confirmed that prior learning will be taken into account and Canteen Managers should make enquiries about their situation during the enrolment process.
• There was no commitment given to waiving the training course for managers who had equivalent prior training or real-life experience.

Occupation Health & Safety Certificates

• Some participants who have current certification in OH&S asked if they needed to keep this up-to-date. It was noted that independent OH&S qualifications are not a requirement of accreditation. OH&S is a topic covered in both the CIT training and the Self-Assessment Tool. Therefore individuals are free to choose for themselves whether they keep any such qualification up to date or not, in the same way that people make decisions about First Aid qualifications.

Responsibility of Committees, Convenors and other Volunteers to Maintain Accreditation Standards

• there was a feeling that people responsible for canteens (other than the Manager) needed access to clear information. People such as Canteen Convenors needed to know what standards and processes the canteen and the canteen manager needed to be held accountable to. The frequent personnel changes in committees and paid staff was noted as a potential problem in keeping the canteen at accreditation standard over time. Ben took that feedback on board and will consider what material can be provided to assist committees to understand the process and help maintain the standards. It was also noted that the Self Assessment Tool (being a book of checklists essentially defining canteen best practice) would help committees in their role.

P&C Council Policy

• Warren Mueller, representing the P&C Council, informed the forum that at a meeting on Tuesday 22 September, 2009 the Council would be considering a change of policy whereby it would ask DET to take over running school canteens. Please note that this is simply a change of policy of the P&C Council. The P&C Council will lobby the government with this idea. It does not mean that the ACT Government will adopt the recommendation. It is not to be read as confirmed government policy. We have since been advised that discussion on this proposal was deferred until a later meeting to be reconvened as soon as possible.
• Deidre Love confirmed that ACTSCA supports this discussion and proposal.

Impost of Costs on P&Cs to Undertake Accreditation

• There was discussion about the expense of the accreditation process. The general consensus was that if the government required P&Cs to implement healthy canteens via their accreditation process, then the government should pay the cost. The expense of the training course is approximately $1000 per person ($450 fee, plus wages of attendee and possibly wages of a replacement back at the canteen).
• The expense is becoming a serious issue due to the turnover of staff. If a trained Manager leave then another person has to be trained.
• Ben Yuen recommended pursuing this line of argument through P&Cs, P&C Council and ACTSCA.

Inappropriate Government Regulation

• Canteens are licensed as heat and serve facilities, when the demands for healthy menus are clearly at odds with this. Cookery, on a semi-commercial scale, is becoming the norm.
• DET Facilities Management are clearly not on the same page as the rest of the department, continuing to design and build completely inappropriate canteens, insisting that canteens are only heat-and-serve stations, not kitchens.
• ACTSCA is arranging meetings with both Health Protection Services and DET Facilities Management to discuss these issues.

Is "the School" or "the Canteen" or the "P&C" Responsible for Accreditation?

• Ben's handout frequently referred to "the school" needing to do various actions, when they will in fact be done by the Canteen Manager.
• Ben emphasised the importance of having a canteen team that included "the school". This was best done by having teacher representative on the canteen committee. Whilst it is true that the canteen is a business owned by the P&C (usually), the bottom line is that the School Principal and the School Board are responsible for everything that occurs on site, including the Canteen.

What are the Implications of NOT Achieving Accreditation?

• There was no answer. There is no stick; the carrot is that accreditation is promoting best practice; it is trying to create a mindset about healthy food and lifestyles, and trying to create teamwork between the school and canteen, all for the benefit of our kids.

If a Trained Manager Leaves Does the Canteen Stay Accredited?

• Yes. A period of grace will apply (2 years is proposed) and then the new manager must be trained.
• The old manager going to a new unaccredited canteen can start the process at the new canteen without having to do the training again.
• As a condition of employment, any potential canteen manager will either have to have been trained (CIT Canteen Management Training Program) or be willing to complete the training.

Outsourced Canteens

• The operator needs to have a trained manager on site, and then complete the accreditation, working in conjunction with the school.