The Local Government Association, which represents more than 370 councils that have responsibility for public health, has calculated that more than one million youngsters are attending academies and free schools that opened between 2010 and 2014 but are yet to formally commit to the same standards followed by all council maintained schools, new academies, and academies that opened between 2008 and 2010.
Cllr Izzi Seccombe, LGA community wellbeing spokesperson, said: “It is deeply worrying that hundreds of academies and free schools are yet to commit to providing healthy school meals to children, more than a year since they were first asked to sign up to new school food standards by government. It's not right that we have rules for some but not all.
“The forthcoming childhood obesity strategy is a great opportunity for the Government to close this loophole in legislation, which will make all academies follow standards that demonstrate a nutritional safety net to parents, who can be assured that their children are eating healthy food at school, rather than meals that could be laden in high amounts of fat, salt or sugar.”
New voluntary rules were introduced in January 2015 in a bid to drive up standards in school meals, and ensure pupils eat a healthy, balanced diet. The Department for Education wrote to the 3,896 academies and free schools which opened between 2010 and 2014 to sign up voluntarily but figures show nearly two thirds - 2,476 - are yet to do so.
Schools which don’t sign up are not required to ensure children get at least one portion of vegetables or salad each day as part of their school lunch and can escape restrictions on providing frield foods and sugary drinks.
The LGA says it is essential government uses its childhood obesity strategy, expected in the summer, to close the loophole in legislation to ensure that all academies and free schools have to formally commit to the standards followed by all other schools.
Seccombe added: "Councils are responsible for tackling childhood obesity and poor diet as part of our public health responsibilities, which is why we want academies and free schools that opened between 2010 and 2014 to formally agree to the school meal standards that are mandatory for every other school.
"It is also vital that our children eat well at school. Nutritional meals mean they are better able to concentrate inside the classroom, as well as learning the importance of healthy eating and avoiding any bad food habits."
Children’s Food Trust CEO, Linda Cregan, said: “Every child has the same right to healthy food at school. This has always been a nonsense loophole and is very simple to fix. There shouldn’t be one rule on food for some schools and another rule for the rest – it’s basic stuff to protect children’s health: we expect every school to make sure kids are wearing their seatbelts on the school minibus. So shouldn’t we also expect every school to serve food that’s healthy?
“Evidence shows regulation helps to improve the food schools serve and the food that children actually eat at school, where voluntary guidelines saw those things deteriorate. And when children eat better, they do better – so it’s just common sense.”