Hampshire County Council to continue provision of school meals via new managed outsource arrangement

This new ‘managed outsource’ arrangement will see the County Council purchase and manage the supply of meals from alternative providers on behalf of the schools and nurseries who subscribe to this service. This will potentially support schools and families to pay a lower price for school meals - particularly important given the ongoing cost-of-living pressures. School meals will continue to be available to all children across Hampshire, including those eligible for free school meals.

The decision to move to a managed outsource arrangement was agreed by Councillor Steve Forster, the County Council’s Cabinet Member for Education, at his Decision Day meeting on Friday, 6 December. It follows a recent five-week consultation with schools and nurseries who currently use the Education Catering service, which found that 73 per cent of respondents (180 in total) would potentially be interested in joining a managed outsource.

Commenting on his decision, Councillor Forster said: “We are exceptionally proud of all that our Education Catering service has achieved, and I want to thank all staff for their ongoing dedication to the service and for their support throughout what continues to be a very challenging period, with rising food and staff costs impacting the school food industry both locally and nationally.

“In light of these pressures and to cover our costs, we have needed to increase the price of our school meals over time and as such, this now exceeds the amount that schools receive from Government to purchase individual meals. With Government funding continuing to fall short, our necessary price increases have placed an added and regrettable burden on our schools’ budgets, with many choosing to move to other more affordable suppliers. Outsourcing our school meals service to private providers, who have lower operating costs and are generally able to charge less, therefore presents a more attractive option for schools and paying families, while freeing us from the financial risk now associated with providing an in-house service.”

Education Catering, formerly known as HC3S, currently provides meals to 364 schools and 33 early years settings in Hampshire. It has seen 139 schools leave or give notice to leave since April 2022. While local authorities are ultimately responsible for ensuring free school meals are provided to eligible children, they are not legally required to run their own catering services to fulfil this. 

With the County Council continuing to face significant and well documented budget pressures, the move to a managed outsource arrangement will enable it to exit a market in which it can no longer afford to compete. It will also allow the local authority to continue supporting schools, addressing concerns raised in the recent consultation about the potential difficulty that certain schools might face in finding a suitable alternative provider, and the added challenges that schools might generally experience as a result of managing their own arrangements.

It is expected that the majority of staff currently working in the Education Catering service will transfer to the new catering suppliers contracted under the managed outsource arrangement, in line with national employment legislation. Consultation regarding these arrangements will be undertaken with staff and trade unions in autumn next year.