Need a New Catering Company?
Starting the process
To start the process of appointing a new catering company, it is advisable to review your current agreement with your catering service provider to understand the notice period that applies to ending the contract.
If your school’s governance requires that you run a tender or quote process for contracting with a new catering supplier, you will need to run a process that ensures you award a catering service contract that will deliver healthy and nutritious food to the children under your care. To assist you with administering this process, on our Tendering Resources below you can find a template tender document for School Catering Services and also a guidance document that details how you can tailor the tender template to the specific requirements of your school.
Run tender process in-house
You will then be ready to run a straightforward tender process, in-house, without the cost of outsourcing, and appoint a new catering supplier to your school. This template has been designed for use by you, to save your school the costs associated with outsourcing your tender process.
If your school’s governance means that you are unable to run an in-house tender process, or the value of your school catering service contract means that you need to run a procurement procedure that is compliant with the Public Contract Regulations, the YPO (Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation) has a framework available which you can use to appoint a school catering provider. Their Building in Use Support Services (DPS) framework provides schools with a route to market for engaging with catering providers under Lot 1 Catering Services. You can find more information and contact details here.
Tendering Resources
At Fresha we realise that the idea of appointing new school catering suppliers can be daunting. To ease the process of generating tender documentation for the provision of school meals, we have prepared a template tender document and associated guidance for your use.
This will enable your school office to run a tender process in-house, saving your school the cost of outsourcing the service. The tender process will allow you to appoint a new catering supplier, which could result in improving your school’s nutritional standards and the associated wellbeing of the children.
You can change your catering supplier using our 3 straightforward steps:
Step 1
Download our tender document and guidance notes.
Step 2
Give your incumbent supplier notice to end the contract (ensuring that the notice period is compliant with the terms of the contract, often this will be either 1 or 2 school terms).
Step 3
Run your tender process in-house and award your new catering contract.
By completing this tender process and issuing a contract award to a new caterer we would expect your school to enjoy the benefits of healthy, nutritious school meals being consumed by the children, benefitting their overall wellbeing.
We will be updating these documents if and when legislation changes, adding additional helpful information to this section over time. We would like to be able to keep you informed of updates and additions. If you click on the link there is an option to register for updates without downloading the tender template.