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Cannock Chase High School

Case Studies

Background The existing contract needed to tendered to be compliant with OJEU. The school site is spread over a large area, and has two catering facilities – upper and lower kitchens. The upper school required upgrading to be able to offer a similar range to that of the lower kitchen. Brief The school required capital…

February 10, 2019

Cannock Chase High School is an 11-19 State funded comprehensive school with Academy status, in Cannock, Staffordshire.  With over 1,000 on its roll, the school is a vibrant and ambitious learning community with a focus on the highest standards and academic achievement, personal development and equality of opportunity.

Background

The existing contract needed to tendered to be compliant with OJEU. The school site is spread over a large area, and has two catering facilities – upper and lower kitchens. The upper school required upgrading to be able to offer a similar range to that of the lower kitchen.

Brief

The school required capital investment in the upper kitchen and a maximum financial return to ensure the catering was not subsidised by the school. The school wanted to work with Litmus to ensure that there was a greater uptake and use of the catering facilities by the students and staff, and also ensure that the offer and prices charged mirrored the expectations of the users.

Approach

Simon Tupper, the Litmus Partnership, said: “After meeting with the school and viewing both the upper and lower kitchens, we understood the improvements that needed to be made. With education being the sector we started in, we have worked on upgrade projects with many education establishments before, and so understand how to best get plans in place, which are both on-budget and on-brief.

“We drew up documents and a process that was OJEU compliant, and invited contractors to respond to the tender.”

Outcomes

With a strong focus on budget, the contract was awarded to the company which offered the greatest investment and financial benefit to the school whilst also providing support to the school with the curriculum. From developing and maximising the catering facilities sales projections showed a growth of 30%.

“We’re well-versed with the OJEU process and so when the school approached us about working with them on the tender, we were confident we could make a positive impact. With the sales projections showing an increase of nearly a third, the tender made a real difference to the bottom line.”

Mike Neales, the Litmus Partnership

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    Background Caterham High School first appointed the Litmus Partnership in 2002 to manage the tender process for the catering services on site. Litmus has provided a monitoring service since then and the breadth of service has been broadened to include the tendering and monitoring of the cleaning services on site. Brief The objective of Litmus’…

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