A blackboard with the words outsource and in house written in chalk

Insourcing vs Outsourced Catering – What’s right for your school?

Catering is always a significant budget for schools and it’s important that it’s done right. Each school is individual and what works for one, may not work for another.

We’ve worked within the Education sector for over three decades, and we have helped thousands of state and independent schools, as well as Multi-Academy Trusts, decide whether running the catering in-house or outsourcing it to a contractor, is the best way forward for them.

Often the decision comes down to the culture of the school and how catering has traditionally been delivered, budget and the experience of the in-house team.

To help schools understand which is right for them, here is a handy guide on the benefits of each approach.

Reasons for operating in-house

Reasons for outsourcing

 

  • A series of bad experiences with multiple contractors.
  • Better value for money or the need to remove significant cost, such as the management fee.
  • Transparency of costs, with no inflated charges.
  • The contractor’s staff ‘going native’ in considering themselves school employees with no particular loyalty to their actual employer.
  • Shared aims – one team, one approach to all aspects of the school.
  • Complete flexibility around supplier and product purchasing.
  • Complete sovereignty over the service, and the ability to make changes quickly without impacting the commercial agreement with a third party.
  • Quicker and more personal response to consumers.
  • Freedom to engage professional support as required and not pay for unused resources.
  • The management resource and knowledge is already in the school’s team to manage the services.

 
  • It reduces a client’s involvement in day-to-day catering management and provides expertise where it doesn’t exist within the school’s management and catering team structure.
  • Continuously evolving industry expertise keeps the food and service offer fresh.
  • Food safety due diligence and continuous compliance with new legislation is delegated.
  • The contractor is equipped to provide catering-specific systems to support the operation.
  • Career opportunities are provided for catering staff.
  • Insurance against the unexpected, such as the ability to resource substitutes during critical staff absence.
  • Skilled support for special events.
  • Guaranteed cost or return and tighter control of costs and transparent accounting for costs, using tried and tested catering accounting software. However, it’s worth noting that this is not always the case, and costs can be hidden from a school or transferred into the account without the school being aware, such as training, relief management and specialist support.
  • Upfront investment is available.

It’s also worth noting, if the catering is outsourced, savings are likely to be made either through renegotiation following a best value benchmarking review or by putting your contract out to tender.

Taking catering services in-house can be a way to reduce costs, but should only be done following a robust options appraisal. Short-term savings can be quickly eroded without proper management systems, procurement expertise and staff development.

There are also tech-driven systems, specifically designed to support schools with their in-house foodservice and can reduce the overall food procurement costs by up to 20%. Our kitchen management and food procurement system, Litmus Edge, does just this and is unlike anything else on the market. Not only does it reduce procurement costs, unlocking essential funds to increase the amount of ‘spend on the plate’, it also removes the need for multiple systems and cumbersome paperwork, enabling schools to run their in-house kitchen and catering service in a more efficient and cost-effective manner.

Not sure where to start? You can find out more about Litmus Edge by clicking here, or reach out to Katie Foster to discuss your current catering challenges and discover how we could help.

 

The Litmus team