BCS loses extension to £16m Lancashire schools contract
By Helen Conway
Bet Catering Services (BCS) is to lose its £16m-a-year turnover school meals contract for Lancashire from mid-June 1998, a year earlier than the anticipated end of the deal.
The contract to provide meals for the 733 primary and secondary schools in the county will then revert to the council's in-house team for a 12-month period.
BCS was awarded the four-year contract from 1 April 1994, but expected to be granted an extension to run it for a fifth year.
Lancashire County Council said it was not giving the extension because it was easier to operate the contract in-house during the transition period following local government reorganisation in the region.
The reorganisation will see Blackpool and Blackburn separate from Lancashire to become unitary authorities in March 1998. Councils are exempted from the normal restraints of compulsory competitive tendering during such transition periods.
BCS northern divisional director Keith Shields said he was disappointed at the loss of the Lancashire contract. But he added that the company intended to bid for the county-wide contract plus those for Blackpool and Blackburn when they come up for re-tender from 1 August 1999.
In a statement, BCS pointed out that it was currently the only private contractor providing a service to the council, as cleaning and grounds maintenance had already been awarded back in-house. It added that the council recognised that BCS provided best value for money on the school meals service.
Blackpool and Blackburn have yet to decide how they will handle their school meals services once the new unitary councils are up and running.
The Lancashire contract has proved a troubled one for BCS, marred by disputes with staff over changes to working practices and conflict with the council over alleged failures to meet specified standards.
Meanwhile, BCS is facing further difficulties in the London Borough of Richmond, where it may be forced to pay three years' back pay to the catering staff it inherited when the company took over the school meals contract in January 1994.
This follows a decision in December 1996 by an employment appeals tribunal which found that BCS was obliged under transfer of undertakings regulations to honour a pay award granted by the National Joint Council for Local Authorities Services in September 1994. Prior to the transfer to BCS, staff wages were determined by the joint council and the tribunal ruled that the new employer should also be bound by this arrangement.
