The Children and Families Scrutiny Committee were scheduled to meet on 30 April 2025 at Waltham Forest Town Hall to discuss the Waltham Forest Catering Service's Service Level Agreement (SLA) with schools, and to review the action and recommendation trackers. Councillor Yusuf Patel, Chair of the Committee, was expected to chair the meeting. This was scheduled to be the final meeting for the municipal year, and the committee were expected to suggest items for the 2025/26 draft work programme for the incoming committee.

Options for the Waltham Forest Catering Service's SLA with schools

The committee were scheduled to discuss a report regarding the future of the Waltham Forest Catering Service, which provides catering to just over half of the schools in the borough. The report noted that six schools have exited the service since 2019, with only one school rejoining, and that another school is scheduled to exit in 2026.

The report stated that the service does not break even and is subsidised by the General Fund¹. Between 2022/23 and 2025/26, the council has subsidised the service at a cost of £2.1 million, excluding any contribution to corporate overheads. The budgeted subsidy for 2025/26 is £0.6 million. The report considered several options:

• Full cost recovery from schools
• Utilising other funding sources, such as the Public Health Grant
• Reduction and changes to the service
• Exiting the traded catering market (service outsourced)
• Do nothing

The report recommended that the council cease offering catering services to provide school meals from 1 April 2026, when the current SLAs with schools expire. It was noted that support would be provided to schools to enable them to consider either directly delivering school meals or sourcing an alternative provider.

The report stated that if the council ceases to provide the service, frontline school kitchen staff (237) would transfer under TUPE regulations, either to new service providers or directly to a school, subject to individual staff agreements. The centrally employed Catering Management Team (six staff) would be subject to the council’s redundancy and redeployment programme.

The report included a draft cabinet report, an Equalities Impact Assessment² (EQIA), and a sustainability matrix.

Scrutiny Report

The committee were scheduled to review the action and recommendation trackers. The action tracker captures all actions required of officers by the committee at the previous scrutiny meeting and provides an update on progress. The recommendation tracker captures all recommendations made by the committee at the previous scrutiny meeting.

The report also included details of a key decision regarding Waltham Forest School’s Catering, scheduled to be made by the Cabinet on 6 May 2025.