St Mary Magdalene Academy ~ Tender for Catering Services.

The successful Supplier will be required to provide catering services at St Mary Magdalene Academy (SMMA), Liverpool Road, London, N7 8PG.

With approximately 1 163 pupils, St Mary Magdalene Academy is an all-through inner city coeducational school located in the London Borough of Islington.

The visit of OFSTED in June 2013 judged SMMA as 'good'. The first short inspection carried out since (January 2017) shows SSMA continues to be good.

Basis of Contract.

The academy wishes to participate in a tender process with the intention of appointing a Supplier to deliver the catering services at the academy. The contract is estimated to commence on or shortly after Easter 2018 and will be for an initial period of 3 years plus an option to extend for 2 further years.

In order to deliver best value, the contract will be awarded on a 'cost plus' with fixed guaranteed lines on food and labour costs.

The contract value is estimated to be 1 000 000 GBP (over 3 years).

Objectives.

The catering service is currently operated in-house and therefore it is important that the appointed Supplier has significant experience and expertise of successfully managing the TUPE process, particularly that associated with transitioning from an in-house operation. It is also likely that the successful Supplier will be required to administer the LGPS for transferring staff and as such will need to have experience of or be willing to apply for Admitted Body Status (ABS).

The Supplier should have notable experience of delivering quality catering services within both primary and secondary schools, together with a strong operational base local to the London Borough of Islington.

Ultimately, it is important that the Supplier can demonstrate an ability to deliver productivity and efficiencies through the application of best practice and innovation and as a result will be expected to deliver sustainable quality and 'best value' to the academy.

Additional information: Interest in the selection process should be expressed via email only to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk clearly stating within this email which contract / notice you are referring to. Please also provide, as a minimum, a contact name, full company postal address and telephone number.

The Selection Questionnaire and associated documents can be obtained at: https://www.litmuspartnership.co.uk/project/st_mary_magdalene_academy

The closing date for receipt of the Selection Questionnaire is 9.6.2017 (12:00). Suppliers are required to ensure that documents are obtained and returned to The Litmus Partnership Limited, by email to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk by the above closing date and time.

Documents in respect of economic / financial standing (where indicated in the Selection Questionnaire) shall be returned to The Litmus Partnership Limited, by email to pqq@litmuspartnership.co.uk by the above closing date and time.

It will be the Supplier's responsibility to obtain any necessary documents in order to submit a response by the closing date and time.

The contracting authority reserves the right not to award any or part of the contract which is the subject of this Contract Notice and reserves the right to terminate the procurement process at any time.

The contracting authority will not be liable for any costs incurred by those expressing an interest in tendering for this contract opportunity.

The contracting authority will consider variant bids, evaluating them (so far as the variant or the evaluation of the variant is in the opinion of the contracting authority practicable) on the same basis as a conforming bid, but shall not be obliged to accept any such bid in preference to a conforming bid even if the variant bid scores more highly. No variant will be considered unless the bidder simultaneously submits a conforming bid.