Peterborough Diocese Education Trust - Tender for Catering Services

The Peterborough Diocese Education Trust (PDET) is a multi-academy trust formed by the Peterborough Diocese Board of Education. Each of our schools maintains its own unique identity but we believe that we can achieve more by working together.

"A cord of three strands is not easily broken." (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).

Our family of schools seek to serve their local communities; they are inclusive welcoming children of the christian faith of other faiths or of no faith, children from all backgrounds and of all abilities. We believe in the infinite worth of each person: children deserve the very best education and staff merit support to deliver this. Although the multi-academy trust was formed initially to support church schools, PDET is happy to work with any community school that shares our values.

The successful Supplier will be required to provide catering services for Peterborough Diocese Education Trust at the schools listed in the SQ Document.

The contract covers the scope for the provision of all school catering services at the above locations, which also includes all hospitality and free issue requirements.

The successful supplier will be expected to source all fresh produce on a local basis, especially fresh meat, bakery and fruit and vegetables.

The emphasis for this service is on achieving "best value" and the successful Supplier will be expected to demonstrate innovation, flexibility and commercialism.

The contract being offered commences on 1.8.2018 for an initial three year period and will operate on a fixed cost basis. Although the contract commencement date is 1.8.2018, there will be no catering provision required at any school until September 2018.

Please note that the successful contractor will pay The Litmus Partnership a consultancy fee on award of this contract, which will be to the value of 12 000 GBP plus VAT. This fee will be invoiced immediately after the 10 days standstill period ends on 9.7.2018 and will enable monitoring of the financial and operational performance of the catering contract throughout the first year. To ensure transparency, Suppliers will clearly show within the management fee a breakdown of this consultancy fee, over the length of the contract. The total full fee will be paid by the successful supplier, in full to Litmus, by no later than Friday 20.7.2018.

It is anticipated that the number of schools within the trust will continue to grow during the course of this contract. The provision of catering services to these schools when they have joined will fall under the scope of this contract if required.

The successful supplier will be expected to provide the catering services within these additional schools using the same costing model, ratios, etc that were applied to the successful bid at the point of tender submission. The duration of contract for these schools will not be increased and they will join the contract for the remaining contract period that exists at the point of entry into the Trust.

Additional information: Interest in the selection process should be expressed via email only to [email protected] 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/peterborough_diocese_education_trust

The closing date for receipt of the Selection Questionnaire is 23.3.2018 (12:00). Suppliers are required to ensure that documents are obtained and returned to The Litmus Partnership Limited, by email to [email protected] 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 [email protected] 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.