The impact of these two changes to catering and cleaning contractor’s budgets in schools has been flagged well in advance of April 2025. As these charges are universal, we recommend tasking your service providers with providing detailed initiatives and strategies to mitigate their impact.
In the meantime, we suggest school leaders consider the following strategies:
Current Contracts
- Review your current contract to acquaint yourself with the clauses relating to wage adjustments and legislative changes, be informed, before discussing options with your contractor
- Review the contractual specifications and consider any areas for service reductions / changes of frequencies / service levels etc. which may be sacrificed to reduce expenditure
- Consider ending the current arrangements and contracting alternative providers, updating the specifications and market testing the service or consider managing the provision ‘in house’ if your provider is not engaged with you in this challenge
Open a dialogue with service providers
- Initiate discussions with current service providers about how they are managing NLW and NI increases and the potential impact on service costs
- Seek their input to drive initiatives and efficiencies – they may know the detail of your contract better then you!
Collaborate with other schools in your network
- If procurement of a replacement contract is your route to efficiencies, consider partnering with other local schools to drive value through volume
- What is everyone else doing with this problem? it is always good to consider sharing ideas / experiences with colleagues to identify potential solutions to your problem
Communicate with your communities
- Keep staff, families and your governing bodies informed of the pressures on the contracts, particularly if costs are impacting school meal prices and school finances. Share any measures which must be taken to balance the books
- Establish feedback mechanisms for stakeholders to share their thoughts and inputs into the service quality and changes resulting from any necessary adjustments.
If you need to help managing the rising costs of your catering or cleaning contract, call Ian Henderson on 07833 265675 or email hello@ace-advice.co.uk for a no obligation discussion.