Dinner ladies say they need more time to prepare meals

"In my local authority the school meals service has been decimated," says Jenny Hogg, who has 18 years' experience as a primary school kitchen assistant in Nottinghamshire.

"Over the years the profession has been de-skilled because the amount of staff has been cut and so have their hours."

Jenny says that, after reaching a low point where there were just two kitchen assistants working at her school, things are beginning to improve and healthier meals are being reintroduced.

"But the problem is the staff have not been given any more time to prepare them," she says.

Recruitment and retention is a big problem, according to Jenny, mainly because of deteriorating pay and conditions for kitchen staff.

'Nobodies'

Val Dent, who works for the public sector union Unison, which is organising the conference, agrees, saying: "Morale is pretty low."

"People don't talk to each other any more when they're doing the job. They haven't got the time - they're just working flat out.

"Women are finding they get more money and less hassle if they go and work in a supermarket now - especially if they've got children."

As a former cook supervisor at a secondary school, she remembers when there was a pastry chef and other more specialised staff in the kitchen.

Now we're reduced to serving, cleaning and washing pots Jenny Hogg, school kitchen assistant

"It's a bit of a myth that school dinners have always been bad," she says.

At the conference the idea of new training for dinner ladies is greeted fairly warmly, but concerns are raised that many will not be able to access it.

Christina McAnea, Unison's head of education services, says the Teacher Training Agency should take more responsibility for training all school staff, including kitchen staff.

"But we're nobodies," one delegate says in response to her speech. "The problem is we're just not seen as part of the school staff."

Jenny Hogg can foresee problems implementing the training envisaged by Education Secretary Ruth Kelly.

"Saying we will have training is all very well but who is going to do the job while we're training?

"I do personally find it patronising to be told we should be trained, because I've been doing the job for a long time," she says.

There are nods from delegates in the row behind.

"I used to cook too," she adds. "But now we're reduced to serving, cleaning and washing pots."

The government says it will train 15,000 school kitchen staff from September.

The focus will be on higher nutritional standards and preparing fresh food.

But Val thinks the quality of training has deteriorated over the years.

"In my opinion the City and Guilds in catering was a higher and better qualification for what we did and I think those standards should be brought back."

Moving forward

Both Jenny and Val agree that cutting dinner ladies' hours has led to lower standards.

They say kitchen assistants are seen as part-time staff who just work a few hours a day and are not encouraged to progress by taking up training opportunities.

"You can produce healthy food," Val says. "But you need time, experience and hours in the kitchen."

"And it did come to giving the kids packet food at one time," Jenny adds, "but things have moved forward."

It might be an uphill battle to restore status to their role, but has Jamie Oliver done the cause of the dinner lady a favour by focusing attention on the quality of school meals?

Long sighs greet this suggestion.