News

The new professional standards introduced by LACA in July 2015 are beginning to make their way into tender documents for school catering contracts – a move which is being welcomed.

Peter McGrath, chair of LACA, said: “It is great to see the hard work put into drawing up these workforce standards is paying off as they are accepted by the industry.

"This means that service providers understand the benefit that standards bring to the industry will help not only catering staff, but also pupils.

“I have seen a number of tender documents recently that include this as part of the specification.”

Typically, tender documents that refer to the standards include a reference such as:

We would expect the Contractor to introduce training to meet the new professional standards introduced by the Lead Association for Catering in Education (LACA) in July 2015 http://www.schoolfoodplan.com/workforce/ for training kitchen staff by the end of the first year of the contract.

Added McGrath: “Such examples demonstrate the standards are being embedded and catering clients and consultants think they are good news. They show that students, clients and schools working together are driving improvements in the service.”