Issues:

• Coming to the end of their existing 4 year contract with a catering contractor.
• Service not meeting expectations of quality and fresh food standards.
• Management and communication problems.
• Many ex Council employees - with local government pensions, two tier pay and Union involvement.
• Individual schools unsure if they should continue as a consortium and remain sub-contracted or move to an in-house service.



Solutions:

• Review Consultancy appointed to assess each individual school’s catering services, operational standards, financial performance, catering staff skills and gather stakeholder opinions and aspirations.
• Prepare an options appraisal to support discussion and decision making to determine future catering strategy.
• Full management of a consortium competitive tender, engaging Harrow Legal, Pension and Procurement departments, Unions and all stakeholders from each individual school.



Outcomes:

• After several debates and some compromises an agreement was reached with all schools to remain as a collective consortium and to retender the contract to one company.
• Standards of catering and the provision of more daily fresh food has substantially increased, although this has come at an increased subsidy to some schools, due to their lower pupil numbers.
• Individual school development plans with contractor investment have been implemented.
• Introduction of an incentivised subsidy reduction scheme based on increasing uptakes.
• Introduction of a consortium wide cashless system.
• A new Group Manager has been recruited and a full on-going staff training programme implemented.



The keys to Review’s success was individually engaging every stakeholder at all the schools at every stage and treating every school equally. The level of detail employed, especially with so many complex staff and management issues, was exceptional. We would not have got to this excellent collective decision without Review’s involvement."


Harrow High School