In today’s increasingly complex education landscape, the roles of CFOs and COOs within Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) have never been more critical. You’re not just managing budgets – you’re making strategic decisions that directly impact educational outcomes, staff wellbeing, and long-term sustainability. From compliance and procurement to catering and contracts, the margin for inefficiency is narrowing.
Here at Litmus, education was the first sector we started in and we’ve worked with hundreds of school Trusts. We know the challenges and opportunities you face.
Here are six key insights every CFO/COO in a MAT should know to maximise value, streamline operations, and improve performance:
Benchmarking catering costs is non-negotiable
Catering is one of the largest outsourced services in schools, yet many Trusts don’t regularly benchmark their costs. Without benchmarking, how do you know if you’re truly getting value for money?
Comparing your costs against national standards, regional peers, and historic performance helps identify hidden inefficiencies and cost-saving opportunities. Benchmarking also provides evidence to support funding applications or justify decisions to stakeholders.
A good catering management system pays for itself
If you deliver your catering in-house, you will know how manual catering admin is a time drain and can be prone to error. Investing in a robust catering management system not only boosts operational efficiency but helps you hit your gross profit targets by reducing your overall catering costs.
Our system – Litmus Edge – has been specifically developed for schools. It can save your team up to 15 hours of admin time each month, while also reducing overall catering costs by up to 20% through smarter ordering, stock control, and supplier management.
Work with consultants to maximise tender outcomes
Running a catering tender isn’t just about choosing the cheapest bidder; it’s about selecting a partner who aligns with your educational values, financial goals, and compliance needs. Working with a consultancy ensures the process is fair, transparent, and tailored to your Trust’s specific requirements.
Consultancies like ours guide you from specification development to supplier evaluation, ensuring you get the best solution – not just the best price.
Understand your catering KPIs
Do you know your meal uptake rate? Or cost per meal versus income per meal? Monitoring KPIs gives you the data to make informed decisions. Better yet, platforms such as Litmus Edge and our contract management dashboard, Verify, automatically tracks and reports on these KPIs, giving you real-time insight without the spreadsheet headaches.
Engage with pupils
Understand what they would like to see on the menus and what their favourite dishes are. Aligning your offering to what your pupils want will help to encourage them to buy their food in school, as opposed to bringing in packed lunches or visiting nearby shops. This is a sure-fire way to reduce food waste and the costs associated with it.
Record your food waste on a daily basis
Understand the sources of the food waste and the cost of what is going in the bin. From there, you can refine your menu, your production volume and ordering amounts. Systems such as DigiTally are proven to reduce plate waste in particular, generating significant savings for schools.
CFOs and COOs in Trusts are under pressure to do more with less. But with the right tools, systems, and support, you can turn cost centres into strategic assets. Whether you need help benchmarking your catering services, managing a compliant tender, or implementing a catering management system like Edge, we’re here to help.
Get in touch here to explore how we can support you.
The Litmus team