One of the aims of the Barnet Food Plan is to create a Food Partnership which would bring together both organisations and individuals with an interest in food, including food aid charities, food businesses such as retail and hospitality, growers (including allotment holders) and, in addition to the third sector, the Borough Council  represented by Departments such as Public Health.

Barnet’s Vision as set out in its Current Food Plan

Our vision is for Barnet to have a sustainable and good quality system of food production, provision and consumption that will improve everyone’s health and wellbeing. Barnet residents will be able to afford and have both the opportunity and knowledge required to eat food that is good for them and good for the planet. We will take action to address the drivers of food insecurity, resilience is built at individual and household level, and emergency food aid is available for those in crisis. A strong partnership between all actors in the food system, including local residents, will build on the work already delivered by the voluntary and community sector to drive our vision forward.

The first meeting of the Barnet Food Partnership (henceforth BFP) in March 2023 attracted a dozen people, mostly from the food aid and food growing sectors, and was chaired by the then head of public health. It was decided to have a Food Charter for the Borough, and to hold a food Summit to raise awareness of food issues and to try and recruit members from a wider section of food organisations, including business. A Committee of seven members was set  up and this has met almost weekly, while the Food Partnership as a whole meets less frequently. Since 2023, the membership has expanded to over 60 individuals and organizations. A web site is in the process of development.

The aims adopted are as follows:

We believe access to good food in Barnet is an essential right. Our vision is to have a food system that promotes health and is sustainable, equitable and resilient. All residents should have access to affordable food that is: good for their health and well-being, good for the environment, good for the local economy, and that can bring communities together.

In short then, there are two categories of players in this context: the local state (the Borough) and voluntary or charitable organisations in the Third Sector, which range widely in size and purpose. In this situation, Council policy is decided primarily by Councillors and officers, although often the implementation of its policies is carried out by the Third Sector organisations which are not usually represented on Council Committees or Boards.

Like most local authorities, Barnet has serious financial problems which have necessitated extensive cuts in services. This  is largely because the grant to local authorities from central government has been steadily eroded for a number of years, while leaving councils to manage their finances from the income derived from council tax and business rates. Councils retain a large number of statutory duties which cannot be cut, including children’s safeguarding, social care and adult social care; planning and housing services; waste collection, road maintenance and library services. Needless to say, costs are rising in all of these areas, as it demand for them.

There is thus inevitably a wide gap between what the Council would like to do and what is possible, given the financial constraints. Currently the Council is conducting a consultation exercise with residents about which services might be cut back further.

What of Third Sector organisations? Some of these are long-established and may be supported by faith organisations, particularly those which use religious premises such as church halls. Although some receive membership fees, many continuously need to seek outside grant funding, large and small, and attain varying degrees of success. All are dependent to a large extent on volunteers although a few, such as a minority of food banks, employ some staff.

The Barnet Food Partnership consists largely of members from Third Sector organisations, with a single Council officer attending and chairing meetings. Although in an early meeting it was agreed that it was ‘important to liaise with the Council’, in practice this has not always proved easy. Barnet residents do have the right to attend many of the Council’s Boards and Committee, and in some cases to pose questions in advance, but they do not sit on such bodies. An early suggestion of the BFU was have a named Councillor with whom to liaise, preferably one who sat in the Cabinet, but in spite of requests this has still not happened.

How then do Third Sector organizations like the BFP communicate with the Council?

• They may ask the Food Officer to convey messages and information from the BFP to a relevant food officer. Conversely the BFP might invite a particular food officer to attend one of its meetings
• A Third Sector organization might send questions to a relevant Council Board or Committee, if its agenda is relevant to the query
• They may utilize the services of their local Ward Councillors
• They might write to the relevant officers or Councillors

Under these circumstances, the BFP may thus request information or suggest a course of action, but it cannot make demands. Further, policies may well have already been decided before they are conveyed to the BFP members.

A good example of this is the closure of the Barnet Food Hub which was set up with government covid funding to distribute food to most of the borough’s many food banks. When this funding ceased, the Council decided it could not to find the necessary funds itself,  but did not convey this information either to the food banks or the BFP until the last minute. A meeting of food bank managers was called a month before the closure when the Head of Public Health told her audience that the Hub would be closing, but there were hopes of continuing a scaled-down version of deliveries for a few months while further funding was sought. The managers were devastated and angry. They turned to the BFU to help them find solutions and the latter produced a list of possible sources of food for which they could apply

This development was widely reported both locally and nationally : but it does leave the  BFP, including the food banks, wondering what exactly is the meaning of a ‘partnership’.