Icknield High School ~ Catering Services Tender

Catering at Icknield High School (the School) is currently being operated in-house, and is generally regarded by stakeholders as being competent but frustratingly far away from the offers presented by other local schools. The catering service does seem to be lacking in confidence and style, which should be standard additional components for a large secondary school in 2022, post Covid. The kitchen facility and available front of house areas, are functional and traditional, and are in need of some investment and refresh to underpin better quality in food and merchandising but there is potential to develop the service in a number of ways:

• A menu offer that is more attractive to more pupils - offering more variety and more on trend content to satisfy government guidelines for secondary feeding
• Increased skills and confidence in the catering team
• Increased compliance and control of supply chain
• Improved food hygiene and food safety practices
• Better communication and with pupils and parents to develop trust by improving all aspects of the customer journey, from card loading, menu presentation, marketing and merchandising to point of sale All the above factors are components in providing a future catering offer that the school can be proud of, along with a confident and skill-enhanced catering team and improved commercial outputs for the school. The tender project is seeking to appoint a Supplier whose initiative and innovation will be welcomed for the provision of service within the existing facilities. Commencing in January 2023, the Supplier will deliver catering services to around 1450 pupils and 125 staff, with a focus on exciting new food concepts to satisfy a wide range of pupil tastes and dietary requirements. The School would wish the successful Supplier to review the current range of services offered, as well as to looking at the delivery of the current catering service and make recommendations accordingly. The contract being tendered is for three years and two terms in duration - from 1st January 2023 to 31st August 2026 with the option to extend for a further two years, the extension would only be for 1 year at a time and will operate as a cost plus with guarantees contract, with the successful Supplier offering the Trust guaranteed lines or the caterer offering a guaranteed annual return for the provision of catering services. The school will maintain sovereignty of tariff throughout the contract and will work in partnership with the contractor to address any operational issues. See SQ Document for further information.