Decision Maker: Cabinet Procurement and Insourcing Committee

Outcome: For Determination

Is Key Decision?: Yes

Is Callable In?: Yes

Date of Decision: March 3, 2025

Purpose:

Content: RESOLVED: 1.  To agree the procurement of a new Children’s Centres catering framework for three years plus an option to extend by a further year, commencing on 1st October 2025. The total maximum value will be £2,700,000, or £3,600,000 if the extension option is taken up.    Reasons For Decision   1.  Hackney Education is seeking to procure a framework agreement to provide catering services for Early Years (children under 5) receiving services at Hackney’s Children’s Centres. The main objectives of the Early Years Catering Framework is to provide healthy, nutritious balanced meals breakfast, meals and snacks to under 5’s attending Hackney Children’s Centres and Nurseries 2.  An Early Years catering service framework was previously procured by Hackney Education to support Hackney’s Children’s Centres. The catering service complies with the School Food Trust recommendations for food and drink for under 5s, and the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering which relate to sustainable food procurement.  3.  All council-managed centres and two maintained schools with children’s centres used the framework, and each one contracted individually with the sole service provider under the framework’s call-off terms. 4.  The Children’s Centres and Nursery Schools with active call off contracts in place with the contractor are listed below: ·  Ann Tayler Children's Centre (Council) ·  Clapton Park Children's Centre (Council) ·  Comberton Children's Centre (Council) ·  Fernbank Children's Centre (Primary School - Jubilee) ·  Hillside Children's Centre (Council) ·  Linden Children's Centre (Council) ·  Woodberry Down Children's Centre (Council) ·  Comet Nursery School (Maintained Nursery School).   5.  In January 2025 Cabinet agreed to proceed to the next stage of the statutory process to issue a statutory notice for the proposal for the closure of Oldhill Primary School and the amalgamation (merger) of its student body with Harrington Hill Primary School. If the proposal is agreed by Cabinet in April 2025 the Oldhill Children Centre will need to make alternative arrangements for catering as meals will no longer be available through the school. The framework contractual terms include flexibility so children centres can join or leave once the framework has commenced to allow for potential such changes. 6.  An Early Years Catering Options Appraisal has now been completed, including a detailed consideration of insourcing. A copy of this report is provided as Exempt Appendix 1.   Alternative Options Considered   1.  OPTION 1 - Do Nothing: this was considered and rejected as the centres need to provide catering services to the community to meet their obligations to parents who pay for a service.  The Council has a declared commitment to support children and young  people, the Centres provide a hub for local families to meet, engage and get support from a range of services.   2.  OPTION 2 - Insourcing:  Hackney’s network of Children’s Centres has recently undergone a significant period of transformation, introducing four Children and Family Hubs and moving from a model of six strategic hubs to four neighbourhoods.   3.  At the same time there has been in consideration a number of proposed changes to Children’s Centres.  Work is now underway to address lessons learnt and set out next steps. In light of this, bringing the service inhouse at this time is not recommended.   4.  In addition, a comprehensive options appraisal was completed and is attached as Exempt Appendix 1. Bringing the service in house is not recommended.  Hackney Education is currently seeking to meet a savings target of £4 million within Children’s Centres by 2026/27.  The options appraisal noted that bringing the service inhouse would bring increased costs, so would not represent value for money compared to continuing to use an external provider.  Children’s Centre management do not have the expertise required to manage the service. This means that new posts would need to be recruited to (a Catering Manager and Quality Assurance Manager) to directly manage an inhouse catering service, creating additional costs. Purchasing of food would cost more as the Children’s Centres would not have the purchasing power and economies of scale of an external provider.  There would also be additional risks around ensuring compliance with food safety legislation and health and safety legislation to ensure a safe service.  Overall bringing the catering provision inhouse at a time of a number of significant changes to the Children’s Centres and at a time when significant savings have to be found is not recommended.  Lack of economies of scale, lack of a suitably experienced operations team and lack of a support infrastructure to manage the service safely and effectively would require significant resources to address. Consequently this option is not recommended as this would not represent value for money.   5.  The preferred option is to re-tender the service through a two stage process where only suitably qualified providers are invited to submit proposals.