Catering the Public Sector: High Standards in an Age of Austerity

The annual public sector spend on food and food services is estimated to be over £2 billion, the majority of which is spent schools and colleges, prisons, the armed services and the NHS. It’s a vast industry that £2 billion has to be spread of over an extremely wide area, putting public sector catering firms under pressures rarely seen in the private sector.

“Our catering is very much tied into tighter budgets,” explains Derek Johnson, Chairman of the National Association of Care Catering. “We’re looking at the equivalent of £20 on average a week to supply all the food and drink for one person in residential care, and with that £20 we need to provide a high level of good nutritious food.”

Indeed, while in the past hospital food may have been something of a running joke, today high standards are a watchword for the industry.

LOW BUDGETS DON’T MEAN LOW STANDARDS
“A great deal of progress has been made in improving aspects such as nutrition, food safety and food quality in recent years,” explains Alexis May, Conference Producer for the upcoming conference Catering in the Public Sector: Maintaining Standards. “It is vital not to allow standards to drop in the era of efficiency savings introduced by the new coalition government.”

Johnson agrees that, budgetary restrictions aside, standards are extremely high for public sector catering. “There’s huge dedication from staff right across catering anyway,” Johnson says. “In the public sector we’re up there with all the big hotels in terms of how much time and dedication we put into it.

“Often it’s not seen as being as glamorous as the private sector,” Johnson continues. “But we produce a lot of high quality foods. We’ve just had our cook of the year competition this week and the standards there are immense. The food being produced wouldn’t look out of place at a five star hotel, but it’s been produced on a budget that is suitable for our market. It takes a lot of thought and care from our staff and management as to how we can actually move services on like that.”

It’s this dedication that is essential to thrive in the public sector, Johnson believes.
He says: “There are a lot of dedicated staff at all levels from front-line staff to managers of services who put a lot of time in to make sure that the service we deliver is the service that the users want, and that it meets their dietary needs. We’re constantly looking at new and innovative ways to meet that need.”

AN AGE OF AUSTERITY
Of course, while budgets have always been famously tight in the public sector, especially in markets such as schools and the NHS, some may be worried things are about get worse with the dawn of the so-called “Age of Austerity”. Fortunately, the industry is working to make sure that even in times of scarcity standards will not fall.

“Pre-election, the Conservatives supported the push to buy British, and this strong drive towards local procurement is likely to be important,” May says. “Procuring collaboratively can save money and thus increase efficiency, and this conference aims to give delegates the chance to hear from the Office of Government Commerce about the best ways in which to do this. Strategic procurement of goods and services, at the same time as minimizing waste, is the key to efficiently run catering services.”

“We’re fortunate that just for the moment the Care Quality Commission who carry out the inspections have nutrition and hydration high on their agenda, and what that’s actually done is made sure we can maintain what we actually do,” Johnson says. “We’ve already got a tight budget, and it’s difficult to reduce the food budget in the present climate, especially once you look at the figures that about the risks of malnutrition that have come out over the last year. Cutting the budget for food in a social care strategy would be very difficult now, and there’s going to be plenty of background information coming out in the coming months showing why it shouldn’t be cut.”

According Johnson, in the long run investing in public sector catering will actually save money for services like the NHS. “By ensuring residents and service users are well-fed it’ll reduce instances of nutrition related illnesses. In the long term this will actually save the healthcare budget as well. If you think about £13 billion being spent on nutrition related illnesses the key to reducing this is ensuring people have access to good nutrition.”

Derek Johnson is chair of the National Association of Care Catering: https://thenacc.org.uk/

Alexis May is Conference Producer for the upcoming conference, Catering in the Public Sector: Maintaining Standards:http://www.publicserviceevents.co.uk/q8hn/overview.asp?ID=164