Shaw Education Trust Cluster - Provision of School Catering Services

The successful tenderer will be required to provide catering services at the four Schools detailed below:

• Blackfriars Academy — Newcastle under Lyme
• Coppice Academy — Newcastle under Lyme
• Blackfriars FE College — Bucknall
• Walton Hall School — Eccleshall

The catering service provision at all four project schools has never been market tested and the incumbent contractor is Entrust (Staffordshire DSO). To ensure best value principles are applied The Shaw Education Trust has made a decision to tender the catering service provision at the four Schools detailed above. The key objective of the tender exercise is to improve service standards and ensure a ‘value for money’ service, based on price and quality, is offered throughout the Cluster.

All catering staff are currently employed by the incumbent contractor — Entrust, to manage and oversee the catering services and therefore TUPE Regulations will apply to this contract. The successful contractor must have the ability to offer comparable pension arrangements to the LGPS.

The chef currently employed at Walton Hall by the Trust to cater for the residential evening service will also be included within the TUPE process.

Current uptake levels are around 80 % with an annual turnover figure of 180 000-200 000 GBP across all four locations. The Trust firmly believes that with improved choice and quality there is a real opportunity to increase this level of uptake. In addition to this, there is a key focus on the catering needs of the teaching and support staff who's numbers are high due to the specialist level of support required and this may also be an opportunity to increase turnover during the contract term.