School Catering Services for East Sussex County Council

Descriptions

East Sussex County Council Council is seeking to engage with any qualified and suitable service providers in order to inform our future delivery of school meal services to educational establishments in the East Sussex area. The Council wishes to undertake market engagement to understand the current market and inform future delivery. The current contract expires on 31st July 2026. The County Council is legally required to provide access to a free school meal service for maintained schools (including provision of Key Stage 1 meals currently funded through Universal Infant Free School Meal funding from the DfE); therefore, arrangements will need to be made to continue to provide this service from 1st August 2026. The contracts are worth approximately £10.4 million per annum and currently used by 138 schools, serving approximately 15,000 meals per day. The objectives of this project are to put in place a high quality, value for money service provision whilst also gaining commitment from the provider to undertake continuous improvement and offer environmental and social value initiatives, to further enhance the service. We will be sending out a survey on Monday 30th June for interested providers to complete by Friday 18th July. Once we have received your feedback, we will ask you to attend a meeting to discuss our requirements further on either Wednesday 23rd July or Tuesday 29th July. These will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams with individual providers. Please register your interest by providing your email to Hannah.Phillips@eastsussex.gov.uk by Friday 27th June and we will contact you with the survey on Monday 30th June.