Localising Food Sourcing in NHS Wales
NHS Wales buys £22m worth of food annually to serve in its hospitals. Very little of that spend serves environmental, social or local economy needs. Arnav Jain reports on a North Star Transition study on how to localise food sourcing in Welsh hospitals.
North Star Transition is pleased to announce the successful completion of an in-depth report for the National Collaborative Commissioning Unit on Localising NHS Hospital Food Sourcing, in partnership with the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board (CTMUHB).
This project, a practical outworking from Wales Transition Lab, was tasked to undertake a feasibility study to establish a model of food supply to secure local, healthy and sustainable food for future generations, improving the wellbeing of patients and food communities, and supporting local food suppliers/producers. As part of the study, a pilot was conducted using one hospital within the CTMUHB region.
Chris Moreton, deputy director of finance, Velindre University NHS Trust, was the NHS sponsor of the study and he explained why he commissioned this work: “Covid-19 and EU Exit starkly exposed the threats to the economic viability of Welsh farmers and the fragility of modern food supply chains. We know that food is an important aspect of patient recovery and wellbeing, yet its value is often overlooked by the system,” Chris pointed out. “Through collaboration and open dialogue with many stakeholders across the value chain, this study uncovered big ambitions from voices who are sometimes marginalised. NHS Wales and the Welsh public sector can play a key role in changing the trajectory of the food system to deliver better economic, social, environmental and cultural outcomes.”
Chris’s hope is that “the ideas, analysis and case studies contained within the report demonstrate that there are many alternative pathways towards a more sustainable food system with more diverse and inclusive supply chains. Now we know it can be done, let’s make it happen.”
To test the feasibility of localising food sourcing, Jyoti Banerjee, co-founder of North Star Transition, outlined the process we used: “We brought together stakeholders across the end-to-end value chain from farm to hospital plate as part of an inclusive approach. As a result, we were able to identify where there were disconnects in the system and the associated impacts.”
Jyoti also pointed to the analytical tools commonly used deployed in entrepreneurship circles which North Star Transition used to evaluate the flow of value in the food sourcing chain: “We were keen to use tools such as design thinking, customer development, lean startup and the business model canvas. In our experience, such tools really bring out the failures and disconnects in the working of a system. We also utilised stakeholder analysis to explore the application of the sustainable development principle, as outlined in the Well-being of Future Generations Act (WBFGA), which we included in our hypothesis development and testing.”
Findings from the feasibility study
These were North Star Transition’s key findings from the Localising NHS Hospital Food Sourcing feasibility study:
Local sourcing opportunities will require scale to execute efficiently
We identified key markets and produce categories within Wales available for CTMUHB food procurement to access. Working in collaboration with Livestock Marketing, we found significant primary production and Welsh processing options in categories including beef, lamb, milk, cheese, butter, yoghurt and vegetables. It is unlikely to be economically efficient to develop a specific supply chain for CTMUHB alone. However, there are opportunities to explore this as part of a wider public sector collaboration.
2. Menus and recipe designs are key to shaping a different pattern of demand
We identified that recipe designs and menus are key in driving food specifications for procurement and subsequently demand from wholesalers. However, due to a complex range of socio-economic factors over time, hospital menus and recipes have become more disconnected from seasonality factors, the availability of Welsh produce and divorced from upstream issues such as carcass balance.
3. There is willingness to improve ways of working across the food value chain to meet WBFGA ambitions
We found that while stakeholders shared a willingness to deliver on the requirements of the Well-being of Future Generations Act (WBFGA), participants felt that more could be done to deliver on the Five Ways of Working across the food system.
Following these findings, we recommend placing a focus on mission-based innovation to transform public sector food sourcing and drive improvements in its contribution to Wales’s foundational economy, citizen wellbeing and positive environmental impact.
Mission 1: Cwm Taf Morgannwg Local Food Sourcing
We propose training for the food sourcing and production team on collaborative working and stakeholder engagement methods across the hospital food system. Further, wholesalers, procurement and catering (on-site and Central Production Unit) in CTMUHB should work together to understand where current purchasing could change to be from Welsh producers.
Mission 2: NHS Wales Future Generations Menu
To drive transformation and deliver on the requirements of the WBFGA, a fundamental rethink of the food sourcing system is needed all the way from farm to hospital plate. We propose setting an innovation team the task to carry out a full rethink of the food system.
Mission 3: Sustainable Food System for the Welsh Public Sector
We propose that Welsh government creates an innovation initiative that extends this feasibility study into regional and national procurement for the public sector. This could include collaboration with and learning from local social enterprises and other sources of food sourcing innovation.
Localising NHS Hospital Food Sourcing report download
Chris Moreton and North Star Transition are grateful to the Backing Local Firms Fund at the Welsh Government and to The Waterloo Foundation for the opportunity to have undertaken this piece of work.
