| 10 August 2007
Scores on the Doors schemes aim to motivate food businesses to raise food safety standards by naming and shaming the good, the bad and the ugliest places to eat. Although the Food Standards Agency may create a national scheme in time, a variety of systems are now in place. Some use stars, some smiley faces, some points, tulips even.
There are concerns about the consistency of scoring between schemes. Nonetheless the Code of Practice for Inspections remains the cornerstone and so is compliance with the need to have a documented food safety management system.
Nick Wilmot, the principal environmental officer at Brighton and Hove City Council, ran 700 local food businesses through the SFBB initiative. He is convinced the relationship between authorities and businesses has changed as a result. ‘We are seen as being a real help in getting these businesses to achieve the goal of complying with the new hygiene regulations bought in January last year,’ he says.
‘SFBB for us has been a great success and provides a solid foundation for introducing the Scores on the Doors initiative. In fact SFBB has provided a strong link into our star-rated system which really has only strengthened our relationship with these businesses. Not only does the fact they have a system in place improve their score, but the system itself has begun to have a real impact on standards in our small businesses.’
Tay Potier is the food and environment manager for Lewisham LBC, part of the London pilot project for Scores on the Doors and one of the 28 London councils in the FSA-supported SFBB projects that ran until April. ‘The scheme has generated a lot of interest and with a lot of people asking for advice about how to improve their score,’ she says. ‘It’s great news because it has really shown us how many food businesses do care about their score and poorer ones want to know what they can do to improve. We have also had a number of people who want to know how to get up from four to five stars, and it will be good to try and see improvements in standards all the way up the scale.’
The SFBB initiative has been a useful way of working with businesses to help them get their score up because it shows a documented food safety management system, coming under the confidence in management category of the Scores on the Doors scheme, she says.
David Ralph, principal EHO for Eastleigh Council, explains that together with other Hampshire authorities it has adopted a different approach called safe2eat, which categorises premises as either excellent, satisfactory or unsatisfactory. It uses the Code of Practice scoring system but, unlike other schemes, it takes into account hazards to ensure premises with more hazards require a higher level of compliance to achieve a favourable rating.
‘We have initially used the scheme to help us target our resources towards those premises who pose the most risk,’ says Mr Ralph. ‘Since the website launch in July we have reduced 63 unsatisfactory premises to just four. At the other end of the scale businesses almost in the Excellent category are asking what to do to achieve the higher rating.’
Despite the diversity of Scores on Doors schemes the support of local authorities for SFBB is clear.
Ian Haynes, CMi’s director of strategic consulting and legal services, is concerned about the sustainability of SFBB initiatives. ‘Scores on the Doors schemes will undoubtedly increase expectations for local authority support, leaving authorities to routinely introduce it to businesses striving for better scores, new business registrations and new proprietors,’ he says.
This is something David Ralph was keen to address at Eastleigh. ‘We didn’t want to just leave businesses to get on with it and so in partnership with CMi we offered a one-to-one SFBB coaching session at their own site.
‘Eastleigh will offer businesses access to CMi for coaching paid for by the businesses, particularly given that for many it is the absence of a documented system which is holding the score back.’
Since there is a finite limit to the FSA’s grant funding for SFBB, there is a need to support Scores on Doors with practical and cost-effective approaches to sustain SFBB with local authorities.
If Scores on the Doors schemes are to succeed it is vital to avoid a deafening and unanswered clamour from small businesses for help and advice.
© 2007 Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
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