Case Studies

London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

AVL Consultancy is in the fortunate position of having worked extensively with both boroughs in the past. They combined the management of their schools and associated catering services in 2013. We are pleased to state that our association with the new combined directorate now continues unabated.

---

For the past 10 years we have provided the monitoring service for all school meals within Richmond, and we have tendered the catering contract on four occasions over the past 15 years.

Project Brief

Once again, AVL were appointed to assist the client team with the management of the competitive tender for this large school meals service.

The tender followed full OJEU processes and was to be let either as a single combined contract or in 2 separate lots, according to the most advantageous financial and operational outcome.

Using our knowledge of the existing services and contract terms, we developed a new service specification with accompanying evaluation criteria. AVL also proposed a number of enhancements to the financial aspects of the tender, which were adopted by the client.

We were then retained to undertake bid evaluation, shortlisting, attend presentations and pre-award negotiations.

Outcome

Although the actual management of the tender process was handled by the client’s existing internal resources, AVL were required to provide specialist evaluation of the technical, operational and finance sections of the bids received.

Each bid received ran into multiple pages of submissions and in order to ensure complete transparency and fairness, the evaluation process was carefully monitored and recorded at all stages.

The new contract will include specific provision for the monitoring and auditing of the catering service to ensure that best value is delivered throughout the life of the agreement.

Client Contact

Eamonn Gilbert
Associate Director Commissioning
Achieving for Children
Kingston upon Thames

Please ask us for contact details so we may approach our client in advance.