A York school has received a 1 out of 5 food hygiene rating, with inspectors saying major improvements are necessary.
St Oswald’s Primary School on Heslington Lane got the rating after City of York Council environmental health inspectors visited on 18 March. The result has just been published.
But the company behind the school’s catering contract has written to parents to say they have acted immediately to resolve the issues, and expect a high rating when inspectors return.
- Dinners at one York school get a ‘poor’ rating for food hygiene and safety
- Another York school has scored just one out of five for its food hygiene rating
St Oswald’s was given the following ratings:
- Food Hygiene and Safety – Improvement necessary: “Some major non-compliance with statutory obligations – more effort required to prevent fall in standards”
- Structural Compliance – Very good: “High standard of compliance with statutory obligations and industry codes of recommended practice; conforms to accepted good practices in the trade”
- Confidence in Management – Major improvement necessary: “Varying record of compliance. Poor appreciation of hazards and control measures. No food safety management system”
Sewell Facilities Management runs the school’s catering contract, which is delivered by ABM Catering.
MD of Sewell, Sean Henderson, told parents in a letter: “Upon their visit on 18 March, the officer found a small number of things that didn’t reflect our usually high standards and have therefore given a rating of 1/5, which is classified as ‘major improvement necessary’.
“In isolation each of these things wouldn’t have warranted such a low rating, but together they led to a poor outcome. A number of these issues related to failures in the processes of operating the kitchen, rather than the cleanliness and condition of the kitchen itself.
“We, and our catering provider ABM, take these issues very seriously. We acted immediately upon the feedback and are confident that this has now been fully resolved.
“We have since had another visit from the Environmental Health Officer on Wednesday 30 March, who was satisfied with our approach, all actions were closed off and they recognised that the kitchen was back to our usual high standard.”
He added: “You have our reassurance that the health and wellbeing of all the children and staff at St Oswald’s is our number one priority, and we will continue to work closely with the school and our catering team to uphold the high standards we expect as a business.”