9.3.3 Provision and Preparation of Meals |
Contents
1. Context
Regulation 12 of The Children Act 1989 and The National Minimum Standards for Children's Homes, 2011 require that children and young people in residential care environments should be provided with food in adequate quantities, properly prepared, wholesome and nutritious. A reasonable choice should be provided so far as is practicable. Special dietary needs should also be met in relation to health, religious persuasion, racial origin or cultural background
2. Scope
It is important to remember that food is not only essential to survival but it is also an important part of cultural and social expression.
For some young people living in residential care, their emotional turmoil may gain expression through their relationship to food. This might, for instance, be through a refusal to eat or indeed through the constant need to eat. Food can also be a focus of disturbance and disruption. It is not uncommon for instance, for food to be thrown at times when young people are angry and upset.
In short the whole area of food, whilst offering opportunities to bring people together to share meals, is also a potentially emotive area for both children and adults and therefore there is a need to think carefully about how to respond and handle these issues within the life of a residential unit.
It is also important to remember that it is through the involvement with the whole process of food planning, shopping, preparation and consumption that young people can learn the skills they need for adult life.
3. Procedure
| 1.0 | The home’s budget for food should be adequate to meet the dietary needs of all young people. The food budget cannot be used for any other purpose, other than the purchase of food. |
| 1.1 | A menu plan should be made each week and young people should be involved as much as possible in the menu planning. |
| 1.2 | It may be that the menu deviates from the plan and whilst this is acceptable the actual meals that were prepared and served must be accurately recorded on a daily basis in the menu book and this record must be available for inspection. |
| 1.3 | There should, as far as practicable, be a choice of dishes available to young people. This choice should reflect religious and cultural needs, dietary health needs as well as personal preferences. The menu should be nutritious, wholesome, varied and of sufficient quantity. |
| 1.4 | Young people should be encouraged to be involved in menu planning, food shopping and the preparation of meals. In order for this to happen in safe appropriate ways, staff should form an assessment of the young person’s capabilities and areas of potential risk. |
| 1.5 | All staff involved in the preparation of food should, as part of their Induction Training, have successfully completed the Basic Food Hygiene Training. A record of their successful attendance and completion should be recorded, as with all staff training, within their individual staff supervision and training file. |
| 1.6 | Medical advice needs to be sought and recorded within the Individual Daily Living File, for any young person who is consistently refusing to eat or for young people that are thought to have any other eating disorder or medical requirement. |
| 1.7 | Clearly there are times when a young person’s behaviour warrants their removal from the communal meal table but no young person should be routinely excluded from communal meals. |
| 1.8 | Meals and drinks should be provided at set mealtimes that are timed appropriately. Food should be readily available for young people when they miss a set mealtime. |
| 1.9 | Drinks, snacks and fruit should also be available, outside of mealtimes. Young people who are old enough and capable enough to help themselves should be enabled to do so. |
| 1.10 | Dining room facilities and their furnishings should be suitable, in numbers and quality for young people and staff using them. |
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