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.