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Public Sector Sustainable Food Procurement Initiative - London Borough of Lambeth

Case Study: London Borough of Lambeth

Region: Kent

Organisation: Lambeth Council

Description: In 2004 Lambeth Council reviewed its provision of school meals, which at that time were delivered as part of a wider contract covering other services such as grounds maintenance. The Council decided to remove the catering element from the contract and put this out to tender as they and the 62 schools covered by the contract considered that the quality of the meals could be improved by using a contractor with specialist catering expertise.

The Council set up a Schools Steering Group consisting of head teachers, bursars, governors and parents to help develop the specification and to agree the criteria to be used in awarding the contract (which were incorporated in the tender documents) with a strong focus on the nutritional quality of the food to be provided.

The contract was let in September 2004. Ongoing contract management and performance monitoring is conducted on an ‘open book’ basis, including joint tri-annual audits of each school, where Council and contractor staff score the service against a range of criteria including nutritional content, staff training, food purchasing, storage, preparation, and health and safety.

Benefits

  • Uptake of school meals has already risen by two per cent across the borough and is expected to continue to increase.
  • While the overall cost has remained the same, average spending on ingredients per meal has increased by 11p to 56p per meal.
  • Children, parents and teachers agree that standards of service and nutritional quality have increased, reflected in the improved levels of satisfaction reported in user surveys.
Lessons learned during implementation

It was decided to include the following in the assessment of bids:

  • Comparing sample menus against Nutritional Standards developed by the authority in the light of the national framework created by the Department for Education and Skills. Recipes were analysed to calculate the proportion of fresh food used.
  • The extent to which bidders would offer access to specialist services such as dieticians, health and safety experts and buyers.
  • Site visits to schools in other authorities, both with the bidder and independently, to look at the work of bidders in other schools, including examining their commitment to high nutritional content.

Future developments

To continue getting the best quality from the contract the Council has also issued a Contracts Management Manual to schools setting out in an easy to use format what they are entitled to and the procedures to be followed if problems arise.

Further information

Page published: 26 May 2006

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs