Tender

Howard Primary School Catering Tender

Howard Primary School

UK4: Tender notice - Procurement Act 2023 - view information about notice types

Notice identifier: 2025/S 000-032322

Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-05489f

Published 13 June 2025, 2:38pm

Scope

Reference

CCL_102

Description

Howard Primary School is a primary school in Croydon in the London Borough of Croydon with a student population of approximately 405 aged between 4 and 11 years of age. There is one busy main restaurant, equipped with a modern, well-maintained kitchen, serving as the hub of its catering provision.

The School Office Manager, in collaboration with the Headteacher and Senior Leadership Team (SLT), is committed to enhancing the school's catering services. As part of this commitment, the school is tendering its catering contract to secure a provider that can deliver the very best service for every student at the school. The new contract will commence on 1st of August 2025 for an initial three-year term, with an option to extend for a further two years, subject to satisfactory performance and client agreement on budgets and service levels. The projected turnover for the three-year contract is expected to be circa £680,000.

This contract is designed to reward proactive management, ensuring high meal uptake, consistently high food quality and tangible contract support. The School, alongside CCL, expects the successful Contractor to reasonably guarantee their financial proposal and maintain excellent service standards.

The procurement process follows a two stage 'Competitive Flexible' approach, beginning with a Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ) stage followed by an Invitation to Tender (ITT) stage after shortlisting. This process is managed under the Light Touch Regime, and the School reserves the right to refine the award criteria throughout.

The School Office Manager and SLT has outlined key priorities for this tender, including: A TUPE-compliant bid with recommendations for service equipment, serving points, staffing levels and a bespoke food concept to drive sales and uptake.

In short, the School seeks a trusted catering partner who can deliver their promises, achieve their sales targets, deliver their service enhancements in full. If bidders fail to demonstrate their ability to meet expectations, the school reserves the right to revert to an 'insourced' solution or post no award. Any investment proposals will need to be consistent with ESFA guidelines.

Total value (estimated)

£660,000 excluding VAT
£792,000 including VAT

Above the relevant threshold

Contract dates (estimated)

1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028
Possible extension to 1 January 2029
3 years, 1 day

Description of possible extension:

The contract can be extended for 2 x 1 years or 1 x 2 years based on satisfactory performance and mutual agreement.

Main procurement category

Services

CPV classifications

55524000 - School catering services

Contract locations

UKI6 - Outer London - South

Submission

Enquiry deadline

16 July 2025, 2:00pm

Submission type

Requests to participate

Deadline for requests to participate

16 July 2025, 2:00pm

Submission address and any special instructions

All correspondence is managed via our portal on https://in-tendhost.co.uk/cohesionconsulting/aspx/Home

Tenders may be submitted electronically

Yes

Languages that may be used for submission

English

Award decision date (estimated)

10 November 2025

Award criteria

This table displays the award criteria of the lot
Name	Description	Type
Cost	35%	Cost

Weighting description

Scoring criteria is based on the CIPFA percentage difference model and is 35% of the total. Quality is 65% of the total.

Other information

Payment terms

Payment Terms must comply with UK Government requirement

Description of risks to contract performance

Contract performance is managed via KPIs and these can be negotiated further post award.

Conflicts assessment prepared/revised

Yes

Procedure

Procedure type

Competitive flexible procedure

Special regime

Light touch

Competitive flexible procedure description

The procurement process follows a two stage 'Competitive Flexible' approach, beginning with a Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ) stage followed by an Invitation to Tender (ITT) stage after shortlisting. This process is managed under the Light Touch Regime, and the Trust reserves the right to refine the award criteria throughout. ALl details are available on our in-tend website: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/cohesionconsulting/aspx/Home

Documents

Documents to be provided after the tender notice

via https://in-tendhost.co.uk/cohesionconsulting/aspx/Home

Contracting authority