Shelley NHS Hospital Food Review

Catering staff support: a) Develop a national training certificated course for hospital caterers, as part of a public sector training qualification. b) Provide an NHS catering apprenticeship scheme. c) Agree national professional standards with mandatory continuing, career-long professional development, including appropriate compulsory food hygiene and allergen training. d) Improve marketing and recruitment for hospital chefs and other members of the catering team, demonstrating that a career in hospital catering is a rewarding one. e) Celebrate success, for example, chef academies and NHS Chef of the Year award. f) Recognise excellence in catering teams and boost uptake of accreditations (such as in nutrition, quality and sustainability). g) Pay hospital chefs at band 3 as a minimum and support progression through pay bands for hospital chefs. h) Fund in-service training for hospital catering teams, especially chefs. i) Fund best practice hospitals to be training centres for others, to include mentoring and shadowing opportunities for hospital chefs.

Nutrition and hydration: a) Ensure there is a named food service dietitian in every trust responsible for overseeing patient, staff and visitor catering, with appropriate funding to support this role outside of clinical responsibilities. b) Dietetics and catering to work together towards healthier food for staff, in line with the Government Buying Standards and government dietary advice such as The Eatwell Guide. c) Make nutrition and hydration a mandatory part of health and care professionals' training, including existing doctors' continuing professional development. d) Ensure food service is a mandatory part of the syllabus for dietitians. e) Ensure there is the right level of housekeeping and support staff in every hospital, and that food service is prioritised as part of their role, with appropriate training on food safety. f) Ensure constant communication and co-operation between dietitians, caterers, nursing teams and other associated groups, such as speech and language therapists. g) Develop an appropriate data-collection method on nutrition and hydration in all hospital settings, to ensure accurate monitoring and comparability.

Food safety: a) There must be open and speedy communication channels for food safety concerns between auditors, local authorities, PHE, FSA, suppliers and trusts, with appropriate governance structures to ensure concerns are acted upon swiftly. b) Every trust must have a nominated food safety specialist and a named board member responsible for the food service. c) A mandated reporting procedure for food safety concerns for trusts and suppliers must be established, with penalties for not reporting issues. d) Raise standards of food safety audits for high-risk food manufacturers, so that they give confidence that the legal and contractual requirements are being met. e) Trusts must recognise their legal obligations as food business operators and ensure effective compliance with robust food safety procedures in place at all levels, that must be understood, enacted and verified.

Facilities: a) Provide funding for the upgrade of existing hospital kitchens and for the provision of ward kitchens, so that a 24/7 service can be provided for everyone; from a hot drink and a snack in the middle of the night to 24/7 meals for new mums in a maternity ward, or for patients hungry after a long fast due to surgery. b) If 24/7 food service is not available for staff, they must have access to appropriate facilities to safely store, prepare and eat their own meals at any time of the day or night. Facilities to prepare hot drinks must be available to all staff. c) All new healthcare builds should prioritise providing health-enhancing, fresh and sustainable food to patients, staff and visitors, while maximising local job opportunities by ensuring 21st-century catering facilities (such as restaurants, central kitchens, patient dining space, ward kitchens and so on) are included in the design phase and considered as part of any capital-funding bid.

Technology: Every hospital to implement a digital meal ordering system by 2022, leading to: a) Safe ordering and mapping to patients' care plans. b) Menu offers tailored to patients' dietary needs and personal preferences. c) Minimum time between ordering and meal service. d) Reduction in waste.

Enforcing standards: a) Ambitious NHS food and drink standards for patients, staff and visitors to be put on a statutory footing and inspected by the CQC, with appropriate resources for the CQC to be able to do so. b) Standards to apply to patient, staff and visitor food, food manufacturers, food retailers and vending machines; including requirements for appropriate facilities to support patients and staff to eat well 24/7 when in the hospital environment.

Sustainability and waste: a) Ensure the use of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' (Defra) 'A plan for public procurement: food and catering: the balanced scorecard' and the Public Services (Social Value) Act (2012), and that a 40% cost/60% quality split is mandated across the NHS for the procurement of food and all catering services. b) NHS trusts to agree a common method of recording and monitoring food waste. c) Food waste minimisation plans to be rolled out with a package of supporting materials, in conjunction with a campaign to raise awareness.

Going forward: a) Set up an expert group of hospital caterers, dietitians and nurses, with input from infection prevention and control, and sustainability and staff health and well-being leads, to oversee hospital performance and progress against these recommendations, with suitable terms of reference. b) The expert group to maintain momentum and provide support to hospital caterers, dietitians and nurses. c) The expert group to be responsible for propagating the core principles of good food service throughout the NHS. d) The expert group to be adequately funded and staffed. e) The expert group to be accountable to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. f) The expert group to publish a post-implementation review.