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A Single Academy Trust located in the North East, faced the challenge of reprocuring their onsite catering provision. The current contract was coming to an end and the school recognised the need to ensure they were compliant with procurement regulations while also improving the quality of food and service for their students. We partnered with the academy to support them to achieve their objectives of ensuring students had access to nutritious and varied menu choices, developing and improving the service and food quality within the catering provision, and establishing a sixth form and staff catering unit that provided a high-street feel and added value to prospective sixth form students. Through our procurement expertise and market engagement, the school was able to complete a compliant and cost-effective procurement process, obtain a rebate for reinvestment in the school, and rebrand and relaunch their catering provision with increased footfall.
Challenge
A North East Academy were looking for support to reprocure their onsite catering provision. The current provision was coming to end, and the school recognised the need to ensure they were compliant with procurement regulations.
The Academy objectives were to;
- Ensure students had access to a nutritious, balance and varied menu choice
- Develop and improve the service and food quality within the catering provision to provide the best quality for the students
- Establish a sixth form and staff catering unit that was targeted at the higher students, creating a ‘high-street’ feel and a value add to prospective sixth form students.
- Achieve procurement compliance and obtain a rebate to be able to reinvest back into the school facilities and curriculum.
The school were keen to receive innovative submissions from service providers, which matched their essential requirements to allow for the service provision and the facilities to grow to cater for their sixth form students. Most importantly, they wanted to achieve a stimulating, good value, high-quality eating experience conducive to a productive afternoon of teaching and learning and other activities intrinsic to the school’s core purpose.
Solution
Value Match worked in partnership with the school to undertake the procurement of this vital service provision.
- Presented an options appraisal evaluating the most effective and compliant routes to market for catering services within the education sector.
- Engaged with the school to understand their key requirements to build the specification demonstrating effective communication with all stakeholders
- Engaged with the market to understand what innovative solutions were available.
- Compiled the appropriate documentation to publish under the recommended framework, managing the end-to-end process to ensure compliance with procurement legislation, equal treatment of bidders and transparency
- Provided evaluation training to all participating stakeholders including school governors.
- Providing ongoing contract management to monitor performance, ensure service delivery is in line with the contract and social value commitments are delivered.
Outcome
As a result of this procurement, the school were able to
- Complete a compliant, cost-effective procurement process resulting in the most economically advantageous tender being awarded
- Receive investment over the contract period to enhance the service delivery to the school, and development of the Sixth form area as a key area required for the school
- Rebrand and relaunch the catering provision within the school which has delivered an increase in footfall through the catering service
- Obtained a total guaranteed annual rebate for the school to allow them to reinvest in their facilities across the 5-year period
The project was completed with 19 weeks ensuring the school were able to implement the contract for the new year to meet the schools’ timescales.
For further information, contact Lindsay Rosul
T: 07702 823 648
E: Lindsay.Rosul@value-match.co.uk