When the Inspire Multi-Academy Trust faced the unexpected withdrawal of its incumbent catering provider, the Trust needed to move quickly to secure continuity of service across its schools. Working in partnership with Litmus, TIMAT delivered a fully compliant procurement process within an accelerated timeframe, helping secure a high-quality long-term catering partner.
Read moreMulti-Academy Trust Consultancy: Catering & Soft FM Consultancy
Litmus helps Multi-Academy Trusts improve catering, cleaning and soft FM services through tender management, purchasing solutions, Litmus Edge, benchmarking and contract support management.
Multi-Academy Trust Catering & Soft FM Consultancy
Litmus helps Multi-Academy Trusts improve catering, cleaning and soft facilities services across multiple schools, giving trust leaders greater visibility, consistency, compliance and value.
Multi-Academy Trusts face a complex challenge: balancing the needs of individual schools with trust-wide efficiency, procurement control, service quality and financial accountability, while MAT leaders also face challenges in delivering high-quality education across every setting.
The Litmus Partnership supports MATs with independent consultancy, tender management, purchasing solutions, in-house catering support, benchmarking, consumer insight and contract performance management. We help trusts create consistent, efficient and effective support services so school and trust leaders can focus on teaching and providing high-quality education.
How does Litmus support Multi-Academy Trusts?
Litmus helps Multi-Academy Trusts review, source, manage and improve catering, cleaning and soft facilities services across their school estate, with MATs operating across multiple schools under strict Department for Education requirements.
Our work supports trusts that want to centralise services, improve their purchasing, achieve better value, strengthen compliance, review supplier performance or create a more consistent experience across multiple schools, often alongside wider central functions and operational support such as HR and finance.
We provide the insight, systems, and practical implementation needed to turn complex multi-school operations into clear, manageable, and measurable improvement programmes, aligned to Education and Skills Funding Agency accountability and day-to-day delivery across each department.
What challenges do Multi-Academy Trusts face?
MATs often need to operate across schools with different contracts, suppliers, budgets, systems, staff structures and local requirements, while remaining responsible for trust-wide governance and compliance.
This can make it difficult to achieve consistency, compare performance or identify where savings and improvements are possible.
Common challenges include meeting extensive regulatory requirements and ensuring regulatory compliance with statutory requirements such as the Academies Financial Handbook, alongside the effective governance structures crucial for successful Multi-Academy Trusts:
- Different catering or cleaning contracts across schools
- Limited visibility of spend and supplier performance
- Inconsistent service quality or pupil experience
- Complex procurement requirements
- Varied contract end dates and service specifications
- Lack of centralised reporting
- Limited internal resources to manage tenders or suppliers
- Difficulty comparing in-house and outsourced service models
- Pressure to reduce cost without compromising quality
Litmus helps trusts bring structure and clarity to these challenges, creating a practical route to better value, stronger performance and greater control across both operations and governance demands.
How can MATs improve catering and soft-FM services across multiple schools?
Improving catering, cleaning and soft-FM services across a trust starts with understanding what is happening today.
Litmus helps MATs review current arrangements, benchmark performance, assess contracts, identify inconsistencies and understand where improvement is needed.
This can include reviewing procurement, analysing costs, mapping suppliers, assessing service quality, gathering pupil and staff feedback, comparing delivery models across the estate, and reviewing funding assumptions and financial modelling to help support long-term sustainability around each school’s unique needs.
From there, we help trusts decide the right route forward, whether that means retendering, centralising contracts, introducing new systems, improving in-house operations or strengthening contract management, with decisions also shaped by central funding approaches such as a top slice model.
How does Litmus support MAT tender management?
Litmus manages more than 150 public contract-regulated catering and cleaning tenders each year on behalf of public-sector clients, including Multi-Academy Trusts, and published around 300 notices for multi-academy trust contracts in the past year.
For MATs, tender management can be complex because the process often involves multiple schools, varied requirements, stakeholder groups and long-term operational decisions. Catering and cleaning tender activity must also comply with the Procurement Act 2023, while maintaining controlled access to procurement information and ensuring suppliers can join the process on the right terms.
Litmus can support the full tender process, including:
- Procurement strategy and planning
- Service specification development
- Supplier engagement
- Tender documentation
- Bid evaluation
- Commercial and quality scoring
- Contract award
- Mobilisation support
- Ongoing performance management
Our role is to help trusts run a clear, compliant and evidence-led process that delivers the right supplier, the right service model and stronger long-term value, with tender management essential for both compliance and cost efficiency.
Litmus in numbers
- More than 2,000 grammar and Multi-Academy Trust schools supported
- More than 150 public contract-regulated tenders managed each year
- 20 universities and colleges supported
- 30 independent schools supported
- Over 3.8 million pupils in England are educated in academies
- Experience across catering, cleaning and soft facilities services
- Increasing adoption of Litmus Edge across schools and trusts
How can MATs centralise in-house catering and support systems?
For MATs running in-house catering, or considering a move towards a trust-wide in-house model, centralisation can improve consistency, visibility and control.
However, centralising catering across multiple schools requires more than bringing services under one structure. Trusts need clear governance, supplier management, procurement controls, menu planning, allergen management, reporting, financial visibility, operational systems, and governance design that sets out a scheme of delegation and decision-making powers. This is especially important when the MAT board oversees how central services are structured and resourced.
Litmus can support MATs with:
- In-house catering reviews
- Delivery model appraisals
- Procure-to-pay system implementation
- Purchasing solutions
- Supplier benchmarking
- Menu and compliance support
- Financial reporting
- Operational planning
- Litmus Edge implementation
This helps trusts create a more cohesive food service across schools while still allowing for local needs and school-level differences, with the board retaining oversight of trust-wide direction.
How can Litmus Edge support Multi-Academy Trusts?
Litmus Edge helps MATs manage in-house school catering more consistently across multiple sites.
The platform supports menu planning, supplier management, ordering, stock control, allergen information, reporting, compliance and procurement control. For trusts, this can provide a clearer view of catering performance across the estate and reduce the administrative burden on school teams and the central team.
Litmus Edge can help MATs improve:
- Menu consistency
- School Food Standards compliance
- Allergen visibility
- Supplier control
- Purchasing accuracy
- Reporting and performance monitoring
- Stock management
- Financial oversight
- Operational efficiency
For MATs looking to centralise or strengthen in-house catering, Litmus Edge forms part of the wider technology infrastructure needed for better control and decision-making.
How can MATs achieve better value from suppliers and contracts?
Multi-Academy Trusts can often unlock better value by reviewing supplier arrangements across the estate. Trusts also often need better visibility of how money is being used across supplier arrangements.
Litmus helps trusts understand where contracts, pricing, specifications and service levels differ between schools. This creates a clearer view of whether current arrangements are delivering value and where improvements may be possible.
Our support can include supplier benchmarking, contract reviews, consolidated purchasing, procurement strategy, pricing analysis, client agent support and contract performance management, backed by Litmus expertise in benchmarking, pricing analysis and contract performance.
The aim is not simply to reduce cost, but to create better value for money: stronger supplier performance, clearer accountability, improved reporting and better outcomes for pupils, staff and school communities.
How does consumer insight help MATs improve services?
Pupils, staff, and the wider school community experience catering and soft-FM services every day.
Consumer insight helps MATs understand how those services are perceived, what matters most to users and where improvements would have the greatest impact.
Litmus can support trusts with surveys, stakeholder engagement, satisfaction research and service feedback, including during transitions to academy status where clear communication is essential. This gives trust leaders evidence to support decisions around menus, service quality, dining experience, contract performance and future investment, while helping facilitate stakeholder engagement to ensure smoother transitions.
By combining operational data with user insight, MATs can make better-informed decisions and create services that are fit for purpose, popular and reliable. That added insight provides practical guidance for decisions affecting pupils, students and wider stakeholders during periods of change.
What outcomes can Multi-Academy Trusts expect in delivering high-quality education?
Litmus helps MATs create stronger, more consistent and better-managed support services across their schools.
Depending on the project, outcomes may include:
- Improved visibility of cost and performance
- Stronger trust-wide procurement control
- More consistent catering, cleaning and soft-FM services
- Better supplier accountability and clearer responsibility
- Improved contract management
- Reduced administration for school and trust teams
- Clearer reporting and KPIs
- Better compliance and audit readiness, including stronger readiness for publishing annual accounts and annual financial statements online
- Improved pupil, staff and stakeholder satisfaction
- More sustainable long-term service models supported by stronger trust-wide resources
Our aim is to help MATs create support services that are financially sound, operationally practical, transparent, and aligned with each school’s needs.
Why choose Litmus for Multi-Academy Trust support?
Litmus has supported schools and trusts since academisation began, helping education organisations manage catering, cleaning, and soft facilities services across increasingly complex operating environments, including compliance with the Academy Trust Handbook and wider public accountability requirements.
Our experience spans more than 2,000 grammar and Multi-Academy Trust schools, alongside independent schools, universities, colleges, public-sector organisations and major private sector clients. We understand how senior leadership accountability works in practice, including the role of the chief executive as the accounting officer responsible for public spending.
We understand the balance MATs need to strike between central control and school-level flexibility. Our consultants bring practical experience, procurement knowledge, operational insight, regulatory compliance expertise, and data-led recommendations to help trusts make confident decisions, with a clear understanding of trustees’ governance duties and the need to uphold the Principles of Public Life under charity law.
Client Success Stories
Discover how we’ve helped organisations across education, healthcare, business and the public sector achieve measurable improvements in quality, efficiency and value.
Litmus partnered with Star Academies in 2025 to manage a large-scale catering tender covering 30 schools under the Procurement Act 2023, delivering a fully tailored and collaborative procurement process, resulting in savings of over £700k.
Read moreSHINE Academies partnered with The Litmus Partnership, working collaboratively to identify a catering provider whose approach, ethos and values aligned closely with those of the Trust.
Read moreDiscover how The Litmus Partnership helped Affinity Learning Partnership run a compliant tender process for their catering contract across all schools within the trust.
Read moreDiscover how The Litmus Partnership helped The Lighthouse Schools Partnership save c£200,000 through our benchmarking and tender management services.
Read moreLitmus managed a catering tender exercise for the five schools TSAT had in the Medway and continued with monitoring services.
Read more
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Frequently asked questions
How can Litmus help Multi-Academy Trusts? Litmus helps Multi-Academy Trusts review, source, manage and improve catering, cleaning and soft facilities services. This can include tender management, supplier benchmarking, in-house catering support, purchasing solutions, Litmus Edge implementation, consumer insight and contract performance management. We can also support academy schools as part of a wider group of schools within a trust.
What are the main catering challenges for MATs? Common catering challenges for MATs include inconsistent service quality, varied contracts across schools, limited central reporting, rising food costs, supplier performance issues, allergen management, menu compliance and balancing trust-wide consistency with local school needs, which can affect daily experiences for children and young people while making it harder to support teaching and the curriculum through consistent catering.
Can Litmus help MATs centralise catering services? Yes. Litmus can help MATs review current catering arrangements and assess whether a centralised model would improve value, consistency and control. This may include delivery model appraisals, procurement strategy, supplier reviews, systems implementation and operational planning. Centralisation should also reflect the trust’s local authority context and the needs of any local authority schools transitioning from local authority arrangements.
Can Litmus support in-house catering for Multi-Academy Trusts? Yes. Litmus supports MATs that already run in-house catering or are considering moving to an in-house model. Support can include operational reviews, procurement, supplier management, menu planning, compliance, reporting, Litmus Edge implementation and performance monitoring. In-house models may also suit maintained schools joining a trust, where existing team structures and systems need alignment.
Can Litmus help MATs outsource catering or cleaning contracts? Yes. Litmus can support MATs through the full tender management process for catering, cleaning, soft facilities and hospitality services where required, helping trusts such as Bohunt Education Trust secure these services across their schools with minimal disruption for teachers and clear reporting for members. This includes specification development, supplier engagement, bid evaluation, contract award, mobilisation and ongoing contract performance support.
How does Litmus Edge help Multi-Academy Trusts? Litmus Edge helps MATs manage in-house catering across multiple schools by bringing menu planning, ordering, supplier management, allergen information, stock control, reporting and compliance into one platform. This gives trust leaders greater visibility and helps reduce administrative pressure on school teams.
How can MATs improve supplier performance? MATs can improve supplier performance by setting clear specifications, KPIs and reporting processes, benchmarking supplier costs, reviewing contract delivery and holding regular performance reviews. Litmus can help trusts create the structure and evidence needed to manage suppliers more effectively.
What is a delivery model appraisal? A delivery model appraisal compares different ways of delivering a service, such as in-house, outsourced or hybrid models. For MATs, this can help identify which approach is most likely to deliver the right balance of cost, quality, compliance, control and long-term value.
Can Litmus help with stakeholder feedback across schools? Yes. Litmus can gather feedback from pupils, staff, parents and other stakeholders to understand how services are experienced across the trust. This insight can support decisions around catering, cleaning, menus, dining experience, service quality and future improvement priorities.
Does Litmus only work with large MATs? No. Litmus can support MATs of different sizes and structures. The level of support depends on the trust’s needs, whether that is a focused review, a single tender, centralised procurement support, in-house catering improvement or a wider trust-wide service strategy.