Agenda item

Bruce Steiner welcomed Robert Bradfield and Amerie Bailey to the meeting. A comprehensive report had been circulated (Agenda Item 9), which aimed to update the Schools’ Forum on the progress made with the school meal arrangement.

Robert Bradfield reported that consultation with schools regarding a procurement strategy had now come to an end and only 10 schools had opted to remain in the West Berkshire Council (WBC) tendered provision for school meals. The cleaning contract was still an issue as only three schools had opted to remain in a WBC led tender process.

Hilary Latimer stated that her school was one of the schools that had opted into the WBC led contract and were in an impossible situation because it was likely that bids would cause schools meals to be too expensive. This could potentially result in the school losing its kitchen facility and becoming less attractive to potential parents. Hilary Latimer stated that small schools like her own were not able to go out to tender on an individual basis as the contract amount was too expensive.  Amerie Bailey stated that this reflected the feedback starting to be received from schools. Those that had left the WBC led scheme were being faced with requests for enormous management fees.

Ian Pearson stated that smaller schools were more vulnerable due to their size and often rural location. There was no further money in the system for WBC to subsidise the cost to schools and therefore schools were having to meet costs from their own delegated budgets. This was particularly hard for small schools.

Catie Colston noted that some of the schools that had opted out of the WBC led process were small schools and queried what they were doing. Robert Bradfield stated that he was unsure what action was being taken on an individual school basis however, smaller schools were beginning to realise that they would not achieve economies of scale. Some schools were working in clusters to obtain contracts.

The Chairman commented that there did not seem to be enough money within education to go around to all schools. He hoped that this would change after the General Election due to take place on 12^th December 2019.

Catie Colston noted the decision a number of schools had taken to opt out of the WBC led cleaning contract and queried how final this decision was, as many were being faced with a very volatile situation. It was possible that schools had opted out due to the recent situation with the school meals catering contract. Robert Bradfield explained that the timescales for the tendering process were the problem. It was hoped that the process would be launched in January 2020 and then there would need to be six months before the contract could go live.

Brian Jenkins felt that it seemed like action had been taken by the WBC commissioning team without doing a full analysis. Robert Bradfield explained that presentations had been provided to schools to ensure that they could make an informed decision.

The Chairman invited members of the Schools’ Forum to consider the proposal set out under section six of the report for a tender for schools to be undertaken on a cross-subsidised model, with no cap on gains. Catie Colston proposed that the Schools’ Forum agree the proposal set out in the report and this was seconded by Ian Nichol. At the vote the motion was carried.

RESOLVED that the proposal set out under section six of the report was agreed by the Schools’ Forum.