Background
Huntington School catering service was provided by the local authority. The service had not been market tested to ensure the school was receiving best value and giving the students the best possible catering experience. Service innovation was also required to reflect the school’s significant investment in new catering facilities. Recruitment and retention of a catering manager was a challenge for the incumbent with no continuity for over 18 months, resulting in a lack of strategic approach to the catering services.
Brief
Huntington School engaged The Litmus Partnership to conduct a public contract compliant tender of their catering services, with the aim of:
- Improve the food offering to the students;
- Deliver a food offering that reflects the significant investment in the catering facilities;
- Drive additional sales by serving excellent food that the students and staff want to purchase;
- Drive uptake of free school meals, to ensure the most vulnerable of their students have a healthy, nutritious meal;
- Appoint a contractor to deliver a well-managed catering service that is responsive to any issues raised; and
- Deliver budgetary savings if they can be achieved.
Approach
In June 2022 Paul Cowie met with the school to understand their objectives and gather information for the upcoming tender. Following the meeting:
- A selection process was conducted, with six of the bidders passing the selection process, from the eight responses received.
- A public compliant tender was written, agreed by the school, and issued to the six bidders. Paul, in partnership with the client, managed a bidder’s site visit and questions were submitted. The bidders then submitted their responses in October 2022.
- Paul analysed the bidders’ responses and provided a scored evaluation with commentary to the school. The school agreed with the evaluation and requested three bidders present their solution to the school.
- Paul managed the bidders’ presentation, providing technical expertise to the school evaluation panel. A summary of the presentation was provided, and the school decided on the winning bidder that met their objectives.
- The Litmus team managed the contract signing, and Paul kept in contact with the successful bidder and the school to ensure the service was mobilised successfully in February 2023.
The process was managed through the Litmus Tender Management System, providing a full audit trail of the process.
Outcomes
Following contract mobilisation, Paul completed a follow up visit in June 2023 to ensure that the successful contractor delivered upon their tender promise.
The successful contractor has delivered an improved food offer, and driven sales and free school meals. They also have plans, agreed with the client, for further changes to food and service in September 2023, to improve the customer flow, and drive uptake by students and staff.
Whilst budgetary savings were secondary to an improved food offer for the school, the school now receives a financial return from the contractor, rather than subsidising the catering offering as they had done previously.