Official UK procurement notice
Catering Services and Associated Goods
Authority: PERRY HALL MULTI-ACADEMY TRUST (Public body)·On behalf of: Altair Consultancy and Advisory Limited
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionReference: ACPHCS0001
Description: Perry Hall Multi-Academy Trust intends to procure a contract for the provision of catering services and associated goods across schools within the Trust.
The procurement is intended to support the continued delivery of high-quality, safe, nutritious and value-for-money school meals whilst promoting pupil wellbeing, healthy eating, inclusion and sustainability. The Trust currently operates across a number of schools and is reviewing its future catering arrangements in advance of the expiry of its current catering contract in July 2027
Perry Hall Multi-Academy Trust currently comprises 10 primary schools serving approximately 3500 pupils total, across Wolverhampton and surrounding areas. The Trust reserves the right to include additional schools that may join the Multi-Academy Trust during the lifetime of the contract.
The scope is expected to include:
- Daily meal preparation and service.
- Free School Meals (FSM), Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) and paid meal provision.
- Breakfast clubs, hospitality and special event catering.
- Menu planning and nutritional compliance.
- Food safety, allergen management and HACCP compliance.
- Staffing, recruitment, training and workforce management.
- Contract management, performance reporting and continuous improvement.
- Sustainability initiatives, food waste reduction and responsible sourcing.
- Engagement with pupils, parents, schools and Trust stakeholders.
- Supply of associated catering consumables and ancillary goods where required.
Suppliers will be expected to demonstrate:
- Strong experience delivering school catering services within the education sector.
- Robust safeguarding, food safety and allergen management arrangements.
- Ability to improve meal uptake, customer satisfaction and nutritional outcomes.
- Effective staffing resilience and mobilisation capability.
- Strong reporting and contract management processes.
- Commitment to social value, local employment opportunities and community benefits.
- Environmental sustainability and responsible supply chain management.
The Trust intends to use feedback received through its market engagement activity to help shape the final specification, performance framework, contract structure and evaluation methodology for the procurement.
Particular emphasis will be placed on:
- Food quality, nutritional standards and pupil experience.
- Allergen management and statutory compliance.
- Safeguarding and staff vetting requirements.
- Service reliability and workforce resilience.
- Contract performance management and continuous improvement.
- Social value and sustainability outcomes.
Perry Hall Multi-Academy Trust has appointed Altair Ltd to act as its official procurement agent for this tender. Altair Ltd will be managing market engagement responses, administrative queries, and tender communications on behalf of the Trust. All expressions of interest and engagement submissions should be directed to procurementaltair@altairltd.co.uk
When the tender notice is published, the contracting authority will be using InTend as its eportal.
- The authority expects to re-tender this requirement around 18 Nov 2031, 23:59 GMT.
CPV: Catering services · School meals
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1PlannedRenewalPublished value£5,500,000
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How PERRY HALL MULTI-ACADEMY TRUST buys Catering services (CPV 5552), and who usually turns up
PERRY HALL MULTI-ACADEMY TRUST has little published record in this market. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Catering services (CPV 5552) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Across this market, small firms won 22% of awards with a known supplier size.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Across this market, 42% of winners were registered in the delivery region.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 70 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Across this market, at least 19% of awarded procurements had no recorded rival.
How many bids did past lots attract?
i
How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid13%
2–332%
4–650%
7+5%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate18%
Within ±2%42%
Above estimate40%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 1589Published estimate£5.5m
This lot is listed as CPV 1589. The table above uses the notice category.
i
How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 18 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid22%
2–328%
4–650%
7+0%
i
Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Open procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Yes · next expected 18 Nov 2031
- First published
- 8 Oct 2026, 15:42 BST
- Last source update
- 8 Oct 2026, 15:59 BST
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 29 Jan 2027
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-095365- Latest notice
- Planned procurement notice (UK3)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-07840dFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- 18 Dec 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Timeline
8 Oct 2026 → 1 Aug 2027 · 6 dates- Planning notice published18 days ago8 Oct 2026, 15:42 BST
- Today27 Oct 2026
- Market engagementin 3 days30 Oct 2026, 23:59 GMT
Details of the Market Engagement
- Purpose of Engagement:
The purpose of this preliminary market engagement is to:
Understand supplier capacity and capability within the education catering sector
Seek feedback on the proposed service requirements and performance framework
Explore innovation in menu development, sustainability and pupil engagement
Understand approaches to increasing FSM and UIFSM uptake
Test commercial and mobilisation assumptions
Gather market insight to support specification development and contract design
Inform the evaluation methodology and KPI framework
Ensure the procurement approach remains proportionate, transparent and attractive to the market
- Engagement Process Description: The engagement is expected to include:
A Preliminary Market Engagement questionnaire
A virtual supplier briefing session via Microsoft Teams – estimated dates
Potential one-to-one discussions with interested suppliers at the sole discretion of the Contracting Authority
Potential follow-up discussions with one or more potential suppliers (at the sole discretion of the Contracting Authority), covering:
Mobilisation and transition arrangements
Meal uptake improvement strategies
Sustainability and social value delivery
Food safety and allergen management
Contract performance and KPI arrangements
Altair Ltd is acting as the procurement agent managing market engagement and the tender process on behalf of the Trust.
All feedback will be recorded and used to inform the final procurement documents, with a summary highlighted within the ITT Suite of Documents whilst ensuring equal treatment and transparency.
- How to Participate: To participate in this market engagement:
- Register interest Email: procurementaltair@altairltd.co.uk with the subject line: “Perry Hall Catering Services PME”
To attend the supplier briefing session, suppliers must provide:
- Organisation name
- Primary contact details
- Further instructions and access to the PME questionnaire will be issued upon registration.
- Participation is open to all interested suppliers and is free of charge.
Engagement Questionnaires must be completed and returned to procurementaltair@altairltd.co.uk by 1600 hours on the 27th of October 2026.
The virtual supplier session will be held on Teams and will take place on the 30th of October 2026 at 1400 hours.
All organisations that express an interest, will be invited to the session.
- Engagement Deadline: (TBC)
- Tender notice expectedin 22 days18 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Submission deadlinein 52 days18 Dec 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Award decision expected byin 94 days29 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 277 days1 Aug 2027
Notice history
5 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 8 Oct 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published8 Oct 2026, 15:42 BSTUK2
- Planned procurement notice published8 Oct 2026, 15:59 BSTUK3
- Status changed to planned8 Oct 2026, 15:59 BST
- Procurement method changed8 Oct 2026, 15:59 BST
- Deadline published: 18 Dec 2026, 12:00 GMT8 Oct 2026, 15:59 BST
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
3 public bodies on the noticeOther public bodies
- Altair Consultancy and Advisory LimitedBeneficiary authority
- ALTAIR CONSULTANCY AND ADVISORY SERVICES LIMITEDProcess contact pointProcuring entityAgent on behalf of the Authority
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Planned procurement notice Planned procurement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender