Stockport trims bet's contract

By Gaby Huddart

Bet Catering Services has lost 10% of its school meals contract with Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council amid claims of failing hygiene, quality and portion standards.

Earlier this week, the council removed the 13 schools from the contract, reallocating the work to its direct service organisation (DSO) until the whole contract, covering 130 schools, comes up for retender in April 1997.

The 60 school meals staff who work at the affected sites have been transferred back as employees of the DSO, Stockport Direct Services.

"At a full council meeting the decision was made to take over the running of the kitchens in 13 schools. This followed expression of serious concerns by councillors about aspects of the contract," a council spokesman told Caterer.

"The concerns centred around the quality of the food, the size of the portions and hygiene standards. BET was issued with warning notices and we then decided to take back the management of the schools that were subject to the warning notices," he explained.

Last week's council meeting also passed a resolution that if there were occasions during the remainder of the contract where standards and service quality became unacceptable, "the council would not hesitate to end the contract on a permanent basis".

But Belinda Coles, marketing director of BET, said the contract had, in fact, been improving its performance and removal of the schools from the contract rested on a technicality.

"The council's decision to make such a move hinges on the mechanics of a contract monitoring system which allows penalties to accumulate over a considerable period of time," Ms Coles told Caterer.

"This, in effect, means that even though the overall performance of the contract continues to exceed the contract specification, individual schools can be plucked from the contract for singular issues, without taking into account any general improvement in standards on that site."

Eric Williams, the company's northern division managing director, said he was disappointed to be losing the schools but said he would now concentrate on the future of the rest of the contract.

"The initiatives that we had planned for the new term will ensure that Stockport's schoolchildren receive the best meals service within the confines of the contract," he said. "These initiatives include the formalisation of a joint monitoring system for client and contractor, an enhancement of the supervisory team, the launch of a programme of NVQ training and the company's commitment to the National Heartbeat Award scheme."

BET won the four-year contract, worth £4m-a-year in turnover, in 1993 after putting in the lowest bid under the compulsory competitive tendering process. But Ms Coles dismissed any suggestion the company had been forced to cut standards to make a profit from the contract.