UK Public Sector Contracts & Tenders

Working across the south of the Diocese of Northampton St Thomas Catholic Academies Trust is proud to serve 14 school communities in Buckinghamshire, Luton, Central Bedfordshire and Slough. Three of these schools are now seeking to procure catering services; 2 x primary schools: St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School & Nursery and St Ethelbert’s Catholic Primary School & Nursery; and 1 x secondary school: St Joseph’s Catholic High School. The Trust is seeking a school meals catering supplier for all three schools from 1st January 2023 for a 3 year contract (plus possible extension on a +1year, +1year basis). The successful supplier is to provide a healthy, high quality and value for money catering service to all school pupils, staff and hospitality as required.

Working across the south of the Diocese of Northampton, St Thomas Catholic Academies Trust is proud to serve 16 school communities in Buckingham, Luton, Central Bedfordshire and Slough. There are 16 schools in the Trust and five of these schools are now seeking to procure their catering services; The schools are as follows: 1) Cardinal Newman Catholic School and Sixth Form (Luton) 2) St Margaret of Scotland Catholic Primary School (Luton) 3) St Martin de Porres Catholic Primary School and Nursery (Luton) 4) St Mary's Catholic Primary School and Nursery (Caddington) 5) St Vincent's Catholic Primary School and Nursery (Dunstable) The Trust is seeking a school meals catering supplier for all five schools from 1st April 2025 for a 3 year contract (plus possible extension on a +1year, +1year basis). The successful supplier is to provide a healthy, high quality and value for money catering service to all school pupils, staff and hospitality as required.

Working across the south of the Diocese of Northampton, St Thomas Catholic Academies Trust is proud to serve 17 school communities in Luton, Buckinghamshire, Slough and Central Bedfordshire. The Trust is undertaking this procurement exercise to source school cleaning contractor(s) for all the schools within the Trust, on a 3 year (plus possible extension on a +1year, +1year basis) starting from 1 September 2025. The contract is being tendered across four geographical Lots (Luton, Slough, Aylesbury and Bucks), and Bidders are invited to apply for one or more Lots. The services required are for comprehensive daily school cleaning services during term time and periodic cleaning outside of term time as per each individual school's requirements (which are outlined in the tender documents). The Trust wishes to appoint a cleaning contractor with the vision and flexibility to manage and maintain the high standards required over the length of the contract, with a proactive approach to service development and innovation. The services are currently outsourced to various contractors.

St Thomas Catholic Academies Trust is undertaking this procurement process to source a suitable provider that can operate all aspects of the Trust's payroll and pension administration for all their schools and any schools that may join the Trust in the future. Over the past few years the Trust has changed significantly by growing to 17 schools and as such the requirements of the payroll and personnel services have evolved, and now the Trust is moving to re-tender the contract to meet new demands. Each school is responsible for managing their workforce and checking payroll data, with top-level oversight coming from the Trust. STCAT schools are based within varying areas which means that the support staff workforce is enrolled in various pension schemes with differing local authorities. A provider who can understand these nuanced differences and ensure that the service is flexible yet remaining consistent, will be paramount to the success of the contract. Amongst current frustrations is the lack of easily accessible and interrogable workforce data and a lack of interoperability between the HR/Payroll service and other core systems such as the school MIS, or financial management software. Although not a firm requirement, it would be beneficial if the new service could offer such functionality. The number of schools is due to increase shortly from 17 to 20, plus the Central Team, and the Trust requires a system to manage that change.

St Thomas Catholic Academies Trust is undertaking this procurement process to source a suitable provider that can operate all aspects of the Trust's payroll and pension administration for all their schools and any schools that may join the Trust in the future. Over the past few years the Trust has changed significantly by growing to 17 schools and as such the requirements of the payroll and personnel services have evolved, and now the Trust is moving to re-tender the contract to meet new demands. Each school is responsible for managing their workforce and checking payroll data, with top-level oversight coming from the Trust. STCAT schools are based within varying areas which means that the support staff workforce is enrolled in various pension schemes with differing local authorities. A provider who can understand these nuanced differences and ensure that the service is flexible yet remaining consistent, will be paramount to the success of the contract. Amongst current frustrations is the lack of easily accessible and interrogable workforce data and a lack of interoperability between the HR/Payroll service and other core systems such as the school MIS, or financial management software. Although not a firm requirement, it would be beneficial if the new service could offer such functionality. The number of schools is due to increase shortly from 17 to 20, plus the Central Team, and the Trust requires a system to manage that change.