Schools told to be ‘flexible’ in event of food shortages as councils and private sector step up no-deal planning

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Schools should be “flexible” in what dinners they serve children in England if there are food shortages because of Brexit, the government has said as it warns local authorities to step up their no-deal planning.

Stockpiling across the country is intensifying as the clock ticks down to 29 March, with the private sector revealing plans to secure long-term supplies of everything from emergency trauma packs to soap and Magnum ice-cream.

And Kent Community Health NHS trust is exploring the option of asking health service staff to stay overnight in its hospitals to safeguard against traffic gridlock in the event of no deal.

A no-deal technical notice issued by the Department for Education to schools in England on Thursday was the latest in more than 80 already published.

It explained to managers and caterers that the government would not be able to guarantee the supply chain of any food and told them they would have “significant flexibilities within the school food standards”.

Activists said it raised the prospect of rewinding the progress made by campaigners such as Jamie Oliver – who railed against chicken nuggets and Turkey Twizzlers – if there are food shortages caused by a no-deal Brexit.

Current guidelines say schools must provide one or more portions of vegetable or salad a day and “no more than two portions of deep-fried, battered or breaded food a week” .

The development highlights the dependence of the UK on frictionless movement of goods from the continent, where much of Britain’s fresh fruit and vegetables including tomatoes, cauliflowers and lettuces are sourced during winter months.

In the no-deal notice, the government says it has been “working to plan arrangements that ensure goods can continue to flow into the UK without significant delays” but it “could not control what happened on the other side of the EU border”.

A spokesman for the Soil Association said a no-deal Brexit “would be a disaster for school meals and for millions of children”.

“The likely disruption to supply chains and inevitable hike in ingredient costs would mean that many caterers would struggle to provide a healthy, hot school lunch,” it added.

The Department for Education said it was “confident that schools will continue to be able to provide pupils with nutritious school meals no matter the outcome of Brexit” as the UK had “a high level of food security built upon a diverse range of sources including strong domestic production and imports from other countries”, which would continue to be in play whatever the Brexit outcome.

Local authorities in England were put on a no-deal footing on Thursday after James Brokenshire, the communities secretary, wrote to county councils telling them it was essential that they were all “undertaking the necessary local planning and preparation” for a no-deal Brexit and ensuring they mitigate “any short-term adverse impacts”.

The Lib Dem MP Tom Brake said the letter was the Conservatives “passing the buck on to cash-strapped councils with warnings of increased community tensions and hate crime as Brexit day looms”.

Brokenshire’s letter said the UK’s exit from the EU had created significant tensions as well as misinformation and/or expectations in communities.

It said members of the council may have an important role to play in providing “timely updates” to local businesses on the status of EU citizens on their payroll and “clarity of information” about responses to “potential heightened community tensions”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An NHS trust in Kent fears gridlock on the county’s roads may mean staff have to sleep in hospitals overnight. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Local Brexit resilience forums involving health and emergency services are already making contingency plans for disruption.

Kent Community Health NHS trust, which is exploring the option of personnel staying overnight as part of its contingency planning for an EU exit on 29 March, fears disruption could continue until the summer or even the autumn.

“We are planning for all eventualities because we have a duty of care [to patients],” one trust official said.

In the commercial sector more and more companies have revealed their lack of confidence in Theresa May’s ability to secure a deal before 29 March with contingency plans being triggered.

Emergency “trauma packs” flown into the UK during terrorist attacks are being stockpiled in Britain by the pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson.

The company said the move was being made because of the danger posed to the “routine and rapid” provision of the vital emergency equipment it provides to the NHS in times of emergency from a distribution plant in Belgium.

Hospitals do not generally keep large stocks of such emergency packs due to the risk of the devices or medicines contained within them running past their product shelf life.

On Thursday, the head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, acknowledged the dangers posed by Brexit.

“What we are doing is reviewing the tens of thousands of individual medicines, medical devices and other products that the health service uses, making sure that the manufacturers of those products have got extra buffer stockpiles,” Stevens said.

Unilever also revealed it was stockpiling ice-cream as well as toileteries such as Sure, Lynx and Dove brands, in case the ports grind to a halt.

Additional reporting by Daniel Boffey and Zoe Wood