Planning a catering tender in 2025?

Giving access to companies that offer fully-managed catering services, CPC’s Outsourced Catering Services framework can help our members to navigate the complexities of catering tendering, saving time, effort and, ideally, significant sums too.

This framework provides a straightforward solution to help members procure a new catering service or appoint a new catering company, offering regional and national competition to help drive innovation, maximise your ROI and secure value for money.

Our Outsourced Catering Services buying solution offers CPC's 10,000+ registered members a compliant route to market, with CPC assessing and approving each incumbent supplier to ensure higher standards of quality and capability.

Adding a noteworthy stamp of approval, this agreement is recommended to schools and academies by the UK Department for Education (DfE), who themselves impose a multifaceted evaluation process when selecting frameworks to endorse.

This is the latest in a series of successful Outsourced Catering Services procurement frameworks which have been used by over 400 educational establishments, encompassing schools, colleges, academies, MATs and universities. The current framework has 36 suppliers on board, each experienced contract catering companies for such institutions, spread across 32 regional lots.

If your current contract expires in 2025, our advice is to start the process now, as we are now reaching the point in time where you may not have time to appoint a supplier for the next academic year without going out to tender soon.

If you are concerned about timeframes and are not yet in a position to tender, you may wish to consider an extension beyond the agreed contract period. This can only be done in exceptional circumstances, but if you are able to extend your contract to finish in January or April 2026, it may offer you the necessary time to allow for a thorough tendering process, and suppliers may then have more capacity to bid. More information on contract modifications (particularly for contracts awarded under Public Contract Regulations 2015) can be found within Regulation 72.

We can help

CPC know that catering procurement is notoriously difficult to get right, but, when it is procured successfully, it is one of the biggest areas where institutions can maximise quality, innovation, ROI and VFM. The savings you could make through a well-delivered catering process could even have the potential to equate to additional teaching posts.

If you would like one of our experienced team members to run a catering tender for you, please get in touch with us and engage the specialist catering procurement consultants in our Crescent Consultancy team. We have completed more than 1,000 public sector catering tenders and can help you procure a quality catering service for your institution.

CPC’s contribution to UK education extends beyond our frameworks and services, our Giving Back charity initiative that has already seen over £2million in funding redirected back into the education sector. The charity’s focus is on supporting special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and wellbeing, while reducing absenteeism.

Read more about the new CPC Outsourced Catering Services purchasing framework or contact us for further information.