School catering services

Description

The successful tenderer will be required to provide sector-leading catering services on a fully outsourced, cook on site basis at the following Trust Academies in the City of Leeds. The contract offered covers the scope for the provision of all catering services, including, breakfast, morning break, lunch, drinks vending and hospitality/event requirements for students, staff and visitors. The Morley Academy (Secondary – 1543 students) The Farnley Academy (Secondary – 1246 students The Ruth Gorse Academy (Secondary – 807 students, increasing to 1200 by September 2019) Bruntcliffe Academy (Secondary – 688 students) Morley Newlands Academy (Primary, 3-11, 607 students) Richmond Hill Academy (Primary, 3-11, 612) Hillcrest Academy (Primary, 3-11, 439 students) Ryecroft Academy (Primary, 274 students) The GORSE Academies Trust is a not-for-profit charity whose driving energy is centred around creating exceptional schools in areas of deprivation within the Leeds city region.The 8 Academies (4 Secondary and 4 Primary) between them serve an age range from Reception through to 16 years, in total some 6 200 students. The Trust also includes Further Education and Alternative Provision Colleges, however these are not included within the scope of this tender. The requirement of the tender is to provide professionally managed, sector-leading catering services for students, staff and visitors at our academies. The contract will commence on the 1.9.2018 with an intentional tenure of 5 years, comprising a minimum initial tenure of 3 years subject to satisfactory performance by the Supplier and an option to extend by 2 periods of one year thereafter, subject to the agreement of both parties. The contract will operate as a guaranteed fixed cost or fixed return to each Academy for the duration of the initial contract tenure. Whereas all services can commence from 1.9.2018, following assessment of tenders, any individual Academy may choose not to opt in to this Trust-wide contract and further their current arrangements. The Trust has a remit for significant further expansion over the medium term and the provision of catering services within Academies converting to the Trust after the contract commencement date may fall under the scope of this contract and under these circumstances, the successful supplier will be required to apply the same costing models, ratios etc. that they applied to their successful tender bid. The duration of contract for these Academies will not be increased and they will join for the remaining contract period that remains at the point of entry into the Trust. Existing services are provided through a mix of in-house, contractor and Local Authority catering service delivery models. In general all Academies have benefited from recent and considerable investment in kitchen, servery, cashless payment systems and dining room facilities. Whereas it is not assumed that further significant investment will be required to deliver services, Tenderers will be invited to visit all locations and put forward any proposals/schemes for further improvement, for discussion with each Academy. Actively promoting a fresh food ethos with an interesting and age-appropriate food and drink offer at breakfast, break and lunch will be vital. The tender criteria will focus primarily on the supplier’s genuine ability to support the catering teams to further develop services with already high levels of uptake. The supplier will be required to agree with the Trust a mechanism for annual tariff/free meal value review that will ensure that excellent value for money for students and parents are maintained. It is envisaged that a single supplier may deliver significant economies of scale/benefits particularly in terms of site support, purchasing and administration. Tenderers should assume that the provisions of TUPE will apply and that there will be a requirement for the successful tenderer to obtain admitted body status to the West Yorkshire Pension Fund to ensure continuity of comparable pension terms for staff already contributing to the Fund, where applicable. The Trust will aim to obtain a preliminary valuation/assessment from the Fund Actuary and issue this with the tender documents. Interested organisations should please register their interest and contact details via email only to the stated contact point. A selection questionnaire and associated tender documents will be issued to those expressing interest. The Trust reserves the right not to award a contract, either wholly or in part and reserves the right to cease the procurement process at any time.