Synergy Multi Academy Trust ~ Catering Tender

Synergy Multi Academy Trust (SMAT) works collaboratively across its schools, bringing a high quality of inclusive education to all. We are ambitious for our young people and believe they should come away from our Trust not only with the best qualifications possible to reach their ambitions in life, but with enquiring and open minds. The trust recognises that rural schools are an important part of the education eco-system and that they play a central role in their local communities. Rural schools are special places, and the Trust is excited to nurture and enable thriving and vibrant education opportunities to all our young people. Young people deserve an excellent education, and the Trust believe in the success of every child. Current catering service annual turnover for the eleven schools in scope is estimated to be around £1million per annum. Catering is currently provided by two service providers and the on-site teams are generally highly regarded by school stakeholders and are seen as a key contributor to the day-to-day functionality of the schools. The contract is likely to be for an initial 3-year term with the opportunity to extend by mutual agreement for a further two years (3+1+1). The principle aim of this process will be to realise the benefits of a single specialist service provider. This Is a key strategic project for catering that will bundle catering services of primaries of varying size, that is designed to attract in-form education sector caterers to make confident and commercially attractive bids. This Intention of the process is to bring the trust’s Primary School catering services under one service provider – with the objective to achieve a higher consistent level of quality in each school and an improved level of off-site support and communication than is currently being achieved by the mix of service providers. Please see SQ Document for more information.