S4S Schools Cluster ~ Tender for Catering Services

The successful tenderer will be required to provide catering services at the following locations:

• St Bartholomew's CE Multi Academy Trust (3 schools),

• St Bartholomew's CE Primary School, Sedgeley Road, Penn, Wolverhampton, WV4 5LG,

• St Benedict Biscop CE Primary School, School Road, Wombourne, Staffordshire, WV5 9DZ,

• All Saints' CE (VC) Primary School, School Road, Trysall, Staffordshire, WV5 7HR,

• St Michael's C of E Aided Primary School, Lower Street, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, WV6 9AF,

• Rakegate Primary School, Rakegate Close, Wolverhampton, WV10 6US,

• Springdale Primary School, Warstones Drive, Penn, Wolverhampton, WV4 4NJ,

• Warstones Primary School, Warstones Road, Penn, Wolverhampton, WV4 4LU,

• Stow Heath Primary School, Hill Road, Portobello, Willenhall, WV13 3TT.

S4S Ltd have been commissioned by the Cluster to coordinate this project to ensure Best Value Principles are achieved.

The catering services provision at all 8 schools has not been market tested in recent years and to ensure best value principles are applied the Headteachers and School Sponsors/Governors of each school have made a decision to tender their catering services.

All schools with the exception of Warstones Primary School have their own kitchen facilities and it is expected all food served to pupils will be freshly prepared and produced on site. Warstones Primary School is currently catered for through a delivered meal service provision from Springdale Primary School and it is envisaged this will continue.

Current pupil roll numbers across all 8 sites is circa 2 381.

Current turnover value across all 8 locations is circa 500 000 GBP per annum including Universal Free School Meals, Free School Meals and cash sales. Current uptake levels vary across all sites and the Schools firmly believe that with improved choice and quality there is a real opportunity to increase levels of uptake.

The catering staff at St Michael's CE Primary School, Rakegate Primary School, Springdale Primary School, Warstones Primary School, Stow Heath Primary School and St Bartholomew's Primary School are currently employed by Wolverhampton DSO and catering staff at St Benedict Biscop CE Primary School and All Saints CE Primary School are employed by Entrust. For the avoidance of doubt TUPE Regulations including pension rights will apply to this contract.

The successful Supplier will be expected to deliver a concise and detailed method of management reporting at the end of each month, thus updating the Client on contract performance. It is imperative that an open book policy is offered to ensure that each School has total clarity on financial performance.

The Cluster is seeking both innovation and the application of current food trends within the tender submissions and would expect as a result of this to be able to identify 'Best Value' and work in partnership with the chosen contractor going forward.

(Further information is provided in the SQ Document.)

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: http://www.litmuspartnership.co.uk/project/s4s_schools_cluster

The closing date for receipt of the Selection Questionnaire is 2.11.2018 (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.