St James CofE Primary School - Tender for Catering Services

The successful supplier will be required to provide catering services for St James CofE Primary School, Birmingham.

St James CofE Primary School has 419 pupils (2018-19 roll), who are entitled to 180 UFSM and 133 FSM.

As a Church of England school serving our multi-faith community, we believe that we approach children's learning from a unique starting point, believing that each person is made in the image of god and therefore precious.

This means that we are accountable to our whole community and available to it. We do not negatively differentiate between pupils for any reason and we embrace diversity as a rich resource. We see the nurture of every child who wants to come to our school as our central role, whatever their needs.

The catering service provision at the school has been operated by CityServe and has not been market tested for many years. To ensure Best Value principles are applied the Headteacher and School Governors have made a decision to tender the catering service.

The client wishes to offer healthy eating options within the menu with minimal use of disposables. The menu should be based on the use of fresh ingredients and bakery products.

The client is looking for a catering partner who can provide a wide and appealing menu to meet the needs of a multi ethnical customer base.

There are other objectives which the client wishes to achieve as a result of this tender process:

1) The provision of a healthy balanced menu that meets nutritional guidelines and is enjoyed by our children;

2) Better value for money to be provided to the school ensuring that the children are provided with a variety of quality food with reasonable portion sizes and takes into account a diverse cultural background of the children;

3) Innovation and flexibility with the ability to 'move with the times' and recommend new service initiatives;

4) An effective marketing campaign should be implemented including the organisation of a series of theme days throughout the year - a minimum of 2 each term;

5) There needs to be total transparency with accounts that are clear and easy to understand;

6) To ensure that all hospitality is provided strictly at net cost of ingredients;

7) Provide a pre order service for the school staff.

There are currently only 2 different school meal choices each day. The client is looking to increase the choice and variety to attract more users of the catering service and in particular for the KS2 children who currently do not use the service.

The client wishes the successful Supplier to be responsible for all cash sales and to introduce a system of online payment for meals, similar to ParentPay and operated by the supplier.

The chosen supplier will have as a minimum The Soil Association Food for Life Silver Catering Award and aspire to reach Gold standard within 12 months.

(Further information is provided in the SQ Document).

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://litmuspartnership.co.uk/sq/stjames/

The closing date for receipt of the Selection Questionnaire is 26.7.2019 (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.