Balance Partnership
The Ascot Schools Cluster (ASC)
Case study
In this study, the Ascot Schools Cluster consisted of five Primary Schools in Ascot, and the surrounding area of Berkshire.
Previously, the Schools' catering service came under the umbrella of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead which were outsourced to a sole catering contractor. The Head Teachers at each of the five Schools wanted to have more control and involvement for the overall quality of service i.e. flexibility with menu choice, using local produce, improved nutritional values for pupils' meals and more control over meal costs and tariffs without incurring penalties etc.
Given the extremely busy workload of the School Heads, we decided that we needed help with the project in order for us to meet not only critical timescales but more importantly to correlate the vast amount of information that had to be gathered for the construction of pre-qualifying questionnaires (PQQs) and invitations to tender documents (ITTs) for distribution to competent Catering Companies. The other important criterion was that while we wanted to obtain benefits as a group, we also wanted some flexibility for each individual Schools' special needs.
Following a meeting with the Schools' Heads and Governors, we contacted the Balance Partnership who was able to satisfy the Cluster's concerns about taking on such a project and after taking references from Schools that Balance Partnership had worked with; we subsequently appointed it to undertake what we considered to be an extremely important and difficult process on our behalf.
Client's Comments
Val Woods, Head Teacher (Lead Contact)The main benefit to me as Lead Contact for the project was that I and my colleagues could get on with the business of teaching and managing our Schools without the disruption of preparing tenders and interviewing Contractors and finally having the arduous task of making the right choice at the end of the process, I believe that by using the services of Balance Partnership we were confident of making the right decision at the end of the project.
Balance Partnership managed the entire project on behalf of the Cluster and while doing so they made the tender journey a very clear but relaxed experience for the group. We were fully updated with progress at critical times during the process which included site visits and key contractor meetings. There was always a speedy response when contacting Balance Partnership.
The conclusion to the tender exercise is that we have a new Contractor who we believe will not only deliver sustainable and improved service levels within agreed financial boundaries but also provide regular trading and contractual information that is both accurate and easy to understand. This is the first contract that the groups of schools have developed together and I hope future contracts will be as successful.