Darlaston Cluster ~ Tender for Catering Services.

The Litmus Partnership have been commissioned by the Cluster to manage this project to ensure best value principles are achieved.

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

County Bridge Primary, Old Church and St Joseph's all have production kitchens on site. However, the other three schools will require a delivered-in food service and this should be taken into account when considering to tender for this project. It is expected all food served to pupils and staff will be freshly prepared on a daily basis including the delivered food option.

All six schools are in a radius of three miles of each other, thus making the logistics of managing the contract straightforward.

Current pupil roll numbers across all six sites is circa 1773:

- County Bridge Primary School: 204 pupils and 39 staff; annual turnover circa 45 000 GBP;

- Pool Hayes Primary School: 210 pupils and 38 staff; annual turnover circa 50 000 GBP;

- Old Church CofE Primary School: 360 pupils and 50 staff; annual turnover circa 60 000 GBP per annum

- Salisbury Primary School: 345 pupils and 40 staff; annual turnover circa 90 000 GBP per annum

- Pinfold Street Primary School: 418 pupils and 50 staff; annual turnover circa 64 000 GBP;

- St Joseph's Catholic Primary School: 236 pupils and 49 staff; annual turnover circa 40 000 GBP.

Current turnover value across all six locations is circa 350 000 GBP per annum including Free School Meals. Current uptake levels across all sites average out at circa 60 % and the schools firmly believe that with improved choice and quality there is a real opportunity to increase this level of uptake.

For the avoidance of doubt TUPE Regulations will apply to this contract and some of the current catering staff are in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

County Bridge Primary School have their own arrangement in place with a contractor and Old Church, Salisbury, Pinfold Street and St Joseph's use another contractor. Pool Hayes' catering provision is currently managed by Walsall DSO.

The successful contractor will be expected to deliver a concise and detailed method of management reporting at the end of each month, thus updating the schools on contract performance. It is imperative that an open book policy is offered to ensure that each school has total clarity on financial performance.

The Cluster 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 their chosen contractor going forward.

Further information is available in the procurement documents.

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: https://www.litmuspartnership.co.uk/project/darlaston_cluster

The closing date for receipt of the Selection Questionnaire is 21.4.2017 (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.