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Michael Hales, managing director of Juniper Ventures, has taken up the position as national vice chair and will be working closely with Judith over the next 12 months. Former LACA chair Brad Pearce has been named as the vice chair elect.

Judith is currently the head of school meals for Cardiff Council where she is responsible for 113 schools, works with a central catering team of 17, and has the responsibility for about 450 catering staff.

The new LACA chair said she was ‘immensely proud’ of the work Cardiff Council has done to develop their Food & Fun Holiday provision. In 2017 the initiative was adopted and funded by the Welsh Government and rolled out to all schools in Wales. Today there are 29 schools in Cardiff alone delivering the programme.

Commenting on her appointment, Judith said: “I want to do some work on building relationships. We’ve got a new UK Government and the limited contact I’ve had with them has been more positive, they want to be more collaborative. It’s early days, but knowing the workings of governments will help me.

“And the Department for Education (DfE) and the Welsh Government talk to each other, so that may help too. Yes, I’m looking forward to it, it’s a huge responsibility but I’m not feeling daunted because I think I’ve had a good grounding. The most important thing is to continue the work of Brad and then Anita on funding in England, to put more pressure on the DfE.”

Judith set out some objectives, including:

• Continue with the messaging for England around funding for both eligible Free School Meals (FSM) and UIFSM, so that there is consistency across all four UK nations.
• Use every opportunity to promote the great work that is being done by school caterers across the UK, and ensure that LACA is the ‘go to’ organisation for all things school food.
• Continue LACA’s work with apprenticeships, in particular attracting younger catering leaders to ensure we are truly representative of the education catering sector.