Provision of Hot Meals under the School Meals Scheme

AI-generated analysis of the documents. Check the official notice and any amendments for current submission details.

1. At a glance

2. Scope of Work

The Central Remedial Clinic School (CRCS) requires a contractor to provide hot meals under the Department of Social Protection's School Meals Scheme. The service involves the preparation and delivery of these meals to the school. The estimated value of the contract is €136,281.60. The school operates for 182 days per year, and the contractor must provide the service on each of these days, barring exceptional circumstances.

The scope of work includes:

• Meal Provision: Supplying hot meals prepared from raw ingredients. A minimum of 10% of the food by value must be certified organic in categories such as cereals, fresh beef, lamb, pork, poultry, fish, vegetables, and dairy products, where feasible.
• Service Delivery Models: Tenderers must specify which of the following service delivery models they are proposing:
• Meals Pre-Prepared Off-site and Delivered Ready to Heat.
• Meals Fully Prepared On-Site.
• Ordering System: Tenderers must describe their proposed food ordering system (e.g., app, website, email), including details on ordering procedures and time limits for adjustments. Imagery of the ordering system must be provided.
• Food Standards: Ensuring high standards of food quality, freshness, and nutritional content. This includes:
• Mitigating menu fatigue.
• Maintaining correct food temperatures from delivery to serving, in compliance with food legislation.
• Avoiding food cross-contamination, particularly for allergies and intolerances (lactose-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, halal options).
• Food Plan: Proposing a food plan that is fresh, healthy, nutritious, and variable. The plan must accommodate dietary needs including intolerances, allergies, and religious observances. Options for lactose-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and halal meals must be included.
• Distribution: Individual packaging and labelling of meals, including the provision of cutlery and napkins. Imagery of individual packaging and labelling must be provided.
• Contract Management: Assigning a Key Account Manager (KAM) responsible for service delivery. A CV for the KAM and a nominated back-up KAM is required.
• Complaint/Incident Management: A clear approach to managing and resolving complaints and incidents, including product recalls, food contamination, customer complaints, medical incidents (foodborne illness, allergies), and food quality issues.
• Staff Resourcing: Ensuring continuous resourcing with skilled, knowledgeable, and trained staff. This includes plans for resource management, staff training, and succession planning.
• Green Procurement: Implementing waste minimisation and a waste management plan, with a focus on food waste prevention. Use of environmentally friendly, recyclable packaging materials and a commitment to reducing plastics are required. A sustainable purchasing policy favouring local, seasonal produce and waste-minimising suppliers is also mandated.

The school operates 182 days per year. The contract value is stated as €136,281.60. The fee per hot meal is €3.20 (VAT exempt).

3. Background & buyer context

This procurement is conducted by the Central Remedial Clinic School (CRCS) under the Department of Social Protection's School Meals Scheme. The scheme aims to provide nutritional support to students. The procurement is being conducted now to secure a provider for hot meals for the school's student population. The estimated contract value is below the EU threshold of €750,000, indicating a national procurement procedure. The school is located at Vernon Avenue, Clontarf, D03K298. The tender documents reference the "buying-greener-green-public-procurement-strategy-and-action-plan-2024-2027" and Directive (EU) 2019/904, highlighting a strategic focus on sustainability and environmental considerations within the procurement.

4. Eligibility & selection criteria

Tenderers must meet the following mandatory requirements to be considered:

• Turnover requirement: A minimum average annual turnover of €45,427.20 for each of the three financial years immediately preceding the publication date of the tender. For consortia, this requirement can be met by the combined turnover of members. Audited financial statements with an unqualified audit report are required.
• Insurance: The successful tenderer must hold the following insurances for the term of the contract:
• Employer’s Liability: €13 million limit per claim.
• Public Liability: €6.5 million limit per claim.
• Product Liability: €6.5 million limit per claim and in aggregate.
• Motor Cover: Minimum €1.3 million for third-party property damage per accident.
• Crime Insurance: €100,000 per claim.
• Cyber Liability: €1 million per claim and in aggregate.
• Professional Indemnity: €6.5 million limit per claim (only relevant for Service Delivery Models 2, 3, or 4 involving fit-out works).
• Certifications: Tenderers must be registered as Food Business Operators (FBOs) with the relevant competent authority (HSE, local authority, or DAFM). A copy of the acknowledgement of notification or approval certificate is required.
• Past experience: Tenderers must demonstrate experience by providing details of at least three previous contract examples (public or private sector) within the last three years. These contracts must involve hot catering services of a similar nature, scale, and value to this tender. Collectively, these examples must demonstrate an average of 60% or more of the number of meals required in this competition. Written references from three referees for these contracts are mandatory.
• Personnel: A Key Account Manager (KAM) must be assigned, with proven experience in similar roles. A CV (max 2 A4 pages) for the KAM and a nominated back-up KAM is required.
• Geographic / facility constraints: Not specified for this tender.

5. Award criteria & scoring

The award criteria are based on a 100% qualitative assessment. Tenderers must achieve a minimum score of 70% for each sub-criterion and sub-sub-criterion where indicated. Failure to meet this threshold in any area will lead to elimination.

Total Qualitative Score: 1,000 marks.

6. Submission requirements

Tenderers must submit their responses using the provided Tender Response Document (TRD). Key submission requirements include:

• TRD Completion: All sections of the TRD must be completed accurately.
• Mandatory Site Visit: Confirmation of attendance at a mandatory site visit is required.
• Declarations:
• Declaration of no conflicts of interest and no anti-competitive behaviour, submitted on headed paper.
• Declaration of personal circumstances, confirming absence of grounds for exclusion.
• Insurance Declaration: Confirmation that required insurances will be in place.
• Selection Criteria Documentation:
• Turnover figures for the last three financial years.
• Audited financial statements (x3) with unqualified audit reports.
• Confirmation of FBO registration with supporting documentation.
• Details of three previous contract examples, including client contact details.
• Three client references.
• Award Criteria Responses: Detailed responses to all qualitative award criteria, sub-criteria, and sub-sub-criteria within the TRD.
• CVs: CVs for the proposed Key Account Manager (KAM) and nominated back-up KAM (max 2 A4 pages each).
• Pricing Schedule: Not explicitly detailed in the provided extract, but implied by the fee structure.
• Submission Portal: Tenders must be submitted via eTenders.
• Checklist: A completed tender submission checklist is required.

7. Key dates & process

8. Contract terms that matter

• Payment Terms: The Contracting Authority will pay the contractor €3.20 (VAT exempt) per student per day for each hot meal provided. Payments are made on a 30-day arrears basis.
• Contract Duration: The term of the contract is not explicitly stated, but references are made to "the Term" and "12 months thereafter" for certain obligations.
• Termination: Either party may terminate the contract with 14 days' notice if a breach continues for 14 calendar days. Breaches capable of remedy must be rectified within 30 days of a written request.
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Contract performance requirements are detailed in Schedule D: Service Level Agreement (Appendix 5).
• Liquidated Damages: Not explicitly detailed in the provided extract, but implied through performance management.
• Sub-contracting: The TRD allows for the identification of subcontractors or consortium members and their responsibilities.
• Parent Company Guarantee/Bond: Not specified in the provided extract.

9. Risks, red flags & unusuals

• Mandatory Site Visit: A mandatory site visit is stipulated, with failure to attend resulting in tender elimination. The date for this visit is not explicitly stated in the provided metadata but is referenced in the TRD checklist.
• Organic Ingredient Minimum: The requirement for a minimum of 10% organic ingredients by value is a specific sustainability focus that may limit supplier options or increase costs.
• Service Delivery Model Choice: Tenderers must select one of the specified service delivery models, which may influence their operational approach and costings.
• High Minimum Scores: The requirement to achieve 70% in every sub-criterion and sub-sub-criterion is stringent and requires a consistently high-quality response across all award areas.
• Turnover Requirement: The annual turnover requirement (€45,427.20) is relatively low compared to the total contract value (€136,281.60), suggesting the contract duration might be shorter than a typical multi-year contract, or that the value is an estimate for a specific period.

10. SME fit assessment

This tender is structured to be accessible to small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with experience in catering services.

• Credible Bidders: A viable bidder would be a catering company with established food safety protocols (HSE/local authority registration), demonstrable experience in providing hot meals (at least three contracts in the last three years, collectively serving 60% of the required meal volume), and the capacity to meet the specified insurance levels. The turnover requirement of €45,427.20 per annum is achievable for many SMEs.
• Consortium/Sub-contracting: The tender documents explicitly allow for submissions as a consortium or with subcontractors, enabling smaller firms to partner to meet requirements they might not fulfil individually.
• Indicative Bid-Prep Effort: Preparing a compliant bid would likely require significant effort, estimated at 5-10 working days for a dedicated team. This includes gathering financial statements, references, developing detailed responses to award criteria (especially on food standards, sustainability, and contract management), and compiling CVs.
• Pwin Signal: The tender does not explicitly name an incumbent. The detailed qualitative scoring and the requirement for specific experience suggest a competitive process. The emphasis on sustainability and specific food standards may favour bidders with existing expertise in these areas. The relatively low estimated value and the open procedure suggest it is not a sole-supplier framework.

11. Where to dig deeper

• Source RFT Filename: TRD - Hot Meals - Central Remedial Clinic School 18317F.docx
• eTenders CFT ID: Not stated
• Contact / Clarification Portal: eTenders platform
• Most Important Attachments:
• Appendix 1: Service Requirements (likely details meal specifications and standards)
• Appendix 5: Schedule D: Service Level Agreement
• Tender Response Document (TRD) itself