Blessed Christopher Wharton Catholic Academy Trust - Tender for Catering Services

The successful supplier will be required to provide catering services for Blessed Christopher Wharton Catholic Academy Trust with schools in the Bradford and Keighley areas in the North of England.

The contract will commence 1.4.2020 and will be for 3 years with the option to extend for a further 2 years.

At contract commencement there will be 11 schools, all primary schools with the majority single form entry, numbers ranging from 198 to 420. It is expected that there will be 19 schools by September 2020 with at least one secondary school.

Contract value: 678 000 GBP year one.

Blessed Christopher Wharton Catholic Academy Trust is looking for a provider who will work in true partnership with the Trust and support its Catholic values.

The Trust's objectives in putting the catering contract out to tender are:

Food choice - ensure a varied and interesting menu that is appropriate to each individual school's pupil food requirements and tastes. Flexibility is important.

Healthy eating - providing and promoting healthy eating options is important.

Pupil engagement and added value - the Trust will be looking for innovative ideas to engage pupils and parents with school food.

Capital investment - capital investment would be welcome in some schools.

Value for money - the Trust is looking for catering costs savings.

Staffing - the current catering staff are mostly well thought of. The Trust will be looking for a provider who is experienced in the management of staff in a multi-site situation.

We understand that most catering staff will be members of LGPS and Admitted Body Status would therefore be expected with regards to pension provision. This would be a first generation contract.

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://litmuspartnership.co.uk/sq/blessedchristopher/

The closing date for receipt of the Selection Questionnaire is 30.8.2019 (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.