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RESOLVED:
To approve the award
to Provider 1 of a single supplier framework contract for the
provision of 
Early Years Catering services commencing on 1st June 2026
with an initial term of 3 years and the option to extend by a
further 1 year at the Council’s discretion. The maximum value
of the contract over four years will be £2,792,522 (excluding
permitted uplifts over the lifetime of the contract).
 
Reasons For Decision
 
An Early Years Catering service was previously
procured by Hackney Education to enable Children Centres in Hackney
to fulfill the requirement to offer a
healthy balanced diet for children under 5 in line with government
guidelines. This arrangement was coming to an end and there was a
need to reprocure the service in order
to ensure its continued provision.
 
The 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
 
Six of the Children’s & Families Hub
Centres are managed directly by the Council and 2 are managed by
linked schools. Each centre has its own call-off from the framework
forming individual contracts with the provider.
 
Catering services were provided to the
following Children’s & Families Hub Centres and Nursery
Schools, and the new framework will continue to provide catering
for these settings:-
 
· 
Ann Tayler Children and Family Hub (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 and Family Hub (Council)
· 
Woodberry Down Children and Family Hub (Council)
· 
Comet Nursery School (Maintained Nursery School).
 
The current provider has worked well with the
Children’s Centres & Nurseries to accommodate the needs
of the children by providing varied healthy balanced menus ensuring
allergen requirements and special diets are met accordingly
 
Since the Business Case report was approved by
CPIC, Hub Officers & External Catering Consultants have
completed a competitive tender process with the support of the
Procurement Senior Category Manager for Education.
 
A Pipeline Notice was published on the 31st
January 2025, and a Preliminary Market Engagement Notice  was published on
14th April 2025 so bidders could be notified when the tender was
published, with 14 organisations registering their interest in the
upcoming opportunity. The tender was published on the 1st October
2025 with a return date of 3rd November 2025 with 2 organisations
expressing an interest in the opportunity.
 
Following the completion of a tender exercise
Cabinet Insourcing and Procurement Committee is recommended to
award the framework to one provider who has extensive experience in
Early Years Catering and can manage multi-sites.
 
The framework contract will be 3 years as long
as the required KPIs are being met. The contract will be fixed for
3 years which includes the London Living Wage, if the contract is
extended for a further 12 months the CPI will be applied.
 
Alternative Options
Considered and Rejected
 
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, and providing meals to under 5s
is a core part of this offer.
 
OPTION 2 - Insourcing: At this
time bringing the service back in house is not recommended. A
comprehensive options appraisal was completed and considered
alongside the preceding Business Case report.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. 
 
Hackney Education is currently seeking to meet
a savings target of £4 million within Children’s
Centres by 2026/27.  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 would be extremely
challenging.  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 was not recommended as it
would not represent value for money
 
At the CPIC meeting on 2nd March 2025 the
preferred option of a competitive procurement process to award a
framework contract was approved. 
However Officers committed to revisit
the position on insourcing. At the end of the second year of the
framework Officers will review whether circumstances have changed
to make insourcing the Catering provision a viable option and will
bring an updated statement to CPIC.