Kings Heath Primary School and Swanshurst School - Tender for Catering Services

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

- Kings Heath Primary School, Valentine Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 7AJ,

- Swanshurst School, Brook Lane, Billesley, Birmingham, B13 0TW.

To ensure best value principles are achieved through the tender process, the schools have decided to work together on this tender project.

The catering services provision at both schools have not been market tested in recent years and to ensure best value principles are applied to the future catering service provision at both schools the Headteachers and school governors of each school have made a decision to tender their catering services.

Both schools have their own kitchen facilities and it is expected all food served to students will be freshly prepared and produced on site.

Current student roll numbers across both sites are circa:

- Kings Heath Primary School - 732 students and 38 teaching staff.

- Swanshurst School - 1,763 students (females only); 207 teaching and support staff.

Kings Heath Primary School's current turnover is circa GBP 70 000 per annum; current turnover for Swanshurst School is circa GBP 250 000 including Free School Meals and cash sales. Current uptake levels vary across both sites, however it should be taken into account that Swanshurst School is an all-female secondary school and Kings Heath Primary School is a mixed gender school with a high uptake of Universal Free School Meals.

The catering team at Kings Heath Primary School are employed by Aspens Services and the catering staff at Swanshurst School are currently employed by Cityserve.

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.

Both schools are 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 Supplier going forward.

The contract term will be for an initial period of 3 years and will commence on 1.9.2018. The basis of the contract will be fixed price during the contract term and if any improvements to financial surpluses are generated then the Supplier shall share these on an agreed percentage return. Free School Meals uptake and any ad hoc catering requirements will be invoiced on a monthly basis and detailed backup will be part of the accounting system.

Note: For the avoidance of doubt, this project is being tendered as a single lot.

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/kings_heath_primary_school_and_swanshurst_school

The closing date for receipt of the Selection Questionnaire is 12.3.2018 (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.