Blog: New School Food Standards: A step forward for school food, but are we doing enough for children with SEND?

16 Apr 2026 Blog: New School Food Standards: A step forward for school food, but are we doing enough for children with SEND?

In this blog, we explore the long-awaited updates to the School Food Standards and what they could mean for children’s health. While the proposals mark a positive step towards improving the nutritional quality of school food, we also examine whether they go far enough to ensure that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are fully supported.

The government has launched a 9-week consultation on proposed updates to the School Food Standards (SFS) – the first review since 2015. This marks a significant opportunity to strengthen the nutritional quality of food provided in schools and better support children’s health.

What’s changing?

The proposed updates introduce a range of positive changes, with a clear focus on reducing children’s exposure to foods high in fat, salt and sugar, while increasing healthier options. This includes completely removing deep-fried foods from school menus, stricter limits on high-sugar items, and clearer guidance on how frequently ‘grab and go’ foods can be offered throughout the week, including sausage rolls and pizza. The updates also place greater emphasis on increasing pupil’s consumption of beans, pulses, fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

These updates are particularly welcome given that children in the UK are currently consuming twice the recommended amount of free sugars, and not enough fruits, vegetables and dietary fibre [1]. This poses a significant concern, as poor dietary patterns in childhood are linked to high rates of obesity and tooth decay, which disproportionately affect children living in more deprived communities and drive widening health inequalities [2]. Poor nutritional status can also affect children’s concentration and behaviour, contributing to gaps in educational attainment and limiting future opportunities [3]. Access to nutritious food at school can play a critical role in supporting school readiness, by improving concentration, processing accuracy and increasing attention span, particularly for those who may face barriers to healthy food at home [3]. By improving the nutritional quality of school food and shifting the balance towards more fibre-rich, nutrient-dense options, these changes have the potential to support learning, improve health outcomes, and help reduce inequalities by ensuring all children have access to the nutrition they need to thrive.

What’s missing?

While the proposed updates are encouraging, a gap in support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) continues to persist. For many children with SEND, food and mealtime provision can present a range of challenges, including sensory sensitivities, strong preferences around taste and texture, and anxiety associated with unfamiliar foods or changes in routine [4, 5]. The current SFS do not provide specific guidance on how to support these needs, meaning that implementing the standards while also meeting the needs of children with SEND can be difficult in practice. Although the proposed updates do include a requirement that “reasonable efforts” should be made to accommodate the dietary, medical, and sensory needs of children with SEND, this remains vague and lacks the practical detail needed to support implementation in real-world settings.

Food Active consultation: SEND stakeholders

Following feedback from the Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) providers during the Easter 2025 Good Food for the Holidays training, which highlighted that current School Food Standards do not reflect the needs of children with SEND, we carried out a series of interviews with dietitians, nutritionists, HAF providers and parents to better understand the mealtime experiences of children with SEND at HAF clubs, identifying key barriers alongside examples of positive, inclusive practice. The findings highlighted that creating supportive mealtime environments for children with SEND relies on consistency, predictability and routine, which help reduce anxiety and build a sense of safety. Approaches such as visual supports, familiar language, sensory food play, and gradual exposure were identified as effective in increasing comfort with new foods. Calm, low-pressure settings that allow children autonomy were also key to building confidence and positive relationships with food. However, the current SFS were seen as too broad and not sufficiently inclusive of SEND needs, often resulting in food refusal.

Looking ahead

We welcome the proposed changes to the SFS and recognise these as a significant step towards improving children’s diets and helping to reduce health inequalities.

However, we encourage the government to strengthen the guidance to ensure it is fully inclusive of children with SEND and to further reduce inequalities, we continue to advocate for:

• Adequate funding to adapt food provision and environments for SEND inclusion
• Clearer guidance and practical examples of how sensory, behavioural and dietary needs can be accommodated within school food provision
• Practical tools and resources to support schools and caterers in delivering inclusive food provision
• National training to build confidence and understanding among staff

Updating the School Food Standards is about more than nutrition alone; it is about creating inclusive environments where all children feel safe, supported, and able to eat well. As the consultation progresses, it will be important to see stronger recognition of SEND needs and inclusion of SEND stakeholders throughout the process.

References

[1] The Food Foundation. 2025. UK still failing to meet basic dietary guidelines. [online]. Available at: https://foodfoundation.org.uk/news/uk-still-failing-meet-basic-dietary-guidelines

[2] The King’s Fund. 2025. What is the state of children’s health in England? [online]. Available at: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/state-childrens-health-england

[3] Elkhatir, M., Ghaffouli, C., Louasté, B., Loukili, A., and Aboussaleh, Y. 2025. Dietary habits and cognitive performance in primary school students: a cross-sectional study in Khemisset region in Morocco. Frontiers in Nutrition. 12:1643854.

[4] Matthews, Z., Pigden-Bennett, D., Tavassoli, T. and Snuggs, S. 2024. Comparing eating and mealtime experience in families of children with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dual diagnosis. Autism. 29(2), pp. 518-535. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39264029/

[5] Bayoumi, S.C., Halkett, A., Miller, M. and Hinshaw, S.P. 2025. Food selectivity and eating difficulties in adults with autism and/or ADHD. Autism. 29(6), pp. 1497-1509. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/13623613251314223

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