The UCL Academy ~ Tender for Catering Services.

The successful Supplier will be required to provide catering services at The UCL Academy.

The UCL Academy is a secondary school with circa 1050 pupils between the age of 11-18. The Academy is located in Camden, London and sponsored by University College London (UCL). It opened in September 2012 with 180 students in Year 7 and recently reached full capacity.

Sponsored by London's global university and research institution (UCL) and housed in a unique and bespoke facility in Camden, The UCL Academy is a highly regarded secondary school with a vision of educating global citizens with the confidence, collaborative skills, and aspirations to make a difference.

The Academy is organised around five Houses (Orion, Cygnus, Equuleus, Vela and Lyra) with every student and member of Academy staff belonging to a House. Each House has its own dedicated canteen servery area which are supplied will meals and products from an onsite central production kitchen. Basis of Contract

The Client wishes to participate in a tender process with the intention of appointing a Supplier to deliver the catering and hospitality services at the Academy. The contract will at the start of the 2018/19 academic year on a 'cost-plus' with fixed guaranteed lines on food and labour costs. Suppliers should note that the contract currently operates to a nil-operating subsidy basis.

Estimated contract value = circa 900 000 GBP over 3 years.

Objectives

Academy's Aims

The Academy's catering service is intended to provide the very best quality and value to its pupils and the school meals service is considered an integral aspect of the overall academy 'household' experience.

The governing body is seeking a contractual relationship with its chosen provider that will influence future developments to maintain and improve the quality and value of catering services. Whilst this is a contracted service, the Client is keen to create a 'One Team' culture and the abilities demonstrated by the Suppliers to harmonise with this ethos whilst meeting the Client's 'Core Objectives' will have a significant bearing on the chosen organisation.

Core Objectives

The Client's overarching objectives are as follows:

1. Provide a high quality, fresh and environmentally sustainable food service

2. Support a whole academy approach to healthy eating, special diets and cultural religious needs

3. Through marketing and creative menus, encourage maximum student uptake across all services

4. Ensure the speed and efficiency of the lunch service allows for all students to enjoy a meal in the allotted lunch period

5. Provide a cost effective and value for money catering service

The appointed Supplier will have significant experience of delivering quality catering services within secondary school premises and should have suitable experience and expertise of successfully increasing pupil meal uptake and lunchtime sales growth.

(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://www.litmuspartnership.co.uk/project/the_ucl_academy

The closing date for receipt of the Selection Questionnaire is 22.12.2017 (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.