Public sector catering contracts
Schools, hospitals, councils and colleges buy catering, from a single café to every school kitchen in a trust. Jonty finds the contracts that fit your business, reads the tender pack and writes the bid with you.
21 days free. No card needed.
Read what the film says
An 86-second film. A voice speaks over footage of cleaning, catering and facilities teams at work, then over Jonty’s screens, which follow one contract from the day Jonty spots it to the day it is submitted. The voice is quoted. The other words on screen are listed under it.
No one speaks for the first 5 seconds; you hear the sounds of the work. A steel trolley rolls along a corridor past feet in blue shoe covers, a man presses a button on a plant-room control panel, and a cook stirs a big steaming pot.
- 05:30 · Outpatients
- 06:15 · Plant room
- 07:00 · School kitchen
Gloved hands set out food on rows of small plates under hanging lamps. Then a cleaner in a white protective suit wipes a treatment couch in a curtained bay, and the shot slows and darkens behind a fact card.
Before the doors open, your teams are already in.
And it’s work the public sector pays for, every year.
- Councils · Academy trusts · The NHS
- NHS trusts in England, 2025/26
- More than £1.5bn on cleaning.
- About £800m on patient food.
- Source: NHS England, ERIC 2025/26
In the evening, a person writes with a pencil at a lamp-lit desk, with a glass of water beside them. Paper sheets land one by one over the picture: three documents, then three bid questions from different tenders.
But the next contract is won after the shift.
The school contract you wanted closed last week.
The next one wants a TUPE plan, a mobilisation plan and social value.
The price, you can work out. It’s the method statements that take your evenings.
- 21:10 · After service
- TUPE staff list
- Mobilisation plan
- Social value
- Q3.1 · NHS hotel services
- Cleaning method for FR1 areas
- Q2.4 · Academy trust
- Meeting the School Food Standards
- Q5.2 · Council estate
- PPM regime to SFG20
An orange dot drops onto the top sheet, the sheets slide away, and the Jonty wordmark appears on a cream screen, with the dot as its full stop and “Bid Manager” under it. Then the dot becomes a glowing orange orb, and a company profile card fills in beside it.
Meet Jonty Bid Manager.
Tell it what you do.
- On a call with Jonty
- Marlcote Services Ltd
- Cleaning · Catering · Hard FM
- Schools and NHS · Yorkshire
On Jonty’s screens, a pre-tender card shows a catering and cleaning contract coming back to market, and the orange dot ticks its expected tender date. Then the sources Jonty reads are ticked off, two results from a plain keyword alert are struck out, and an email notice opens into a match card for the same contract.
It spots contracts coming back to market, often months before the tender.
Then it emails you the ones that fit.
- Spot it early
- Pre-tender
- Catering and Cleaning Services
- Brackenmoor Learning Trust · £7.2m
- Tender expected in January
- Contract starts 1 September
- Find
- Sources Jonty reads
- Find a Tender
- Contracts Finder
- Public Contracts Scotland
- EU-Supply
- TED (EU)
- Keyword alert: cleaning
- Endoscope cleaning machines
- Supply of cleaning chemicals
- Jonty · New match: Catering and Cleaning Services
- January
- Tender
- Find a Tender
- 3 + 2 years · Starts 1 September
- 8 schools, all in your area.
- Match: 92/100
The tender pack’s 11 documents appear as pages, then fold into one line. Three pass-or-fail checks get ticks, and a verdict appears beside them.
It reads the pack, checks the hard rules, and says: bid, or pass.
- Qualify
- Tender pack · Catering and Cleaning Services
- Invitation to tender
- Specification: catering
- Specification: cleaning
- Site list and floor areas
- TUPE staff list
- Pricing schedule
- Current menu cycle
- Procurement Specific Questionnaire
- Quality questions
- Social value
- Contract terms
- 11 documents read
- Hard gates · pass/fail
- Public liability £10m
- Verified · Insurance schedule
- Enhanced DBS checks
- Verified · Safer recruitment policy
- Food hygiene rating 4 or 5
- Verified · Kitchen ratings
- 3 of 3 cleared
- Checked against your Vault
- In your favour
- Bid
- Three similar school contracts.
A draft answer fills in on a card. Its first sentence gets a source tag, and the next line has a pale yellow gap for the bidder to fill.
It drafts your TUPE and mobilisation answers from past bids, and leaves a gap where proof is missing.
- Write
- Q4.2 · Draft answer
- Mobilisation and TUPE
- We meet transferring staff before day one.
- Source: Past bid, p.9
- Mobilisation manager: [Add: name]
- 1 gap to fill
An approval card waits for the bidder. A cursor labelled “You” clicks Approve, the orange dot runs along a progress bar, and a tick appears.
Nothing goes to a buyer without your OK.
- Submit
- Submit response to Brackenmoor Learning Trust?
- Nothing changes until you approve this.
- Approve
- Dismiss
- You
- Submitting on the buyer’s portal
- Submitted
Back to the work: a cook in a white hat, mask and apron stirs a big pot with a long paddle, then a woman lifts white linen from a wire cart in a laundry. The film ends on the Jonty wordmark with its orange dot, “Bid Manager” under it, and a dark button with the last spoken line on it.
Jonty does the paperwork. You do the work.
Your team stays on the contracts you already run.
Get Bid Manager at askjonty.ai.
- Questions? Book a call.
- Illustrative screens. The buyers and figures on them are fictional.
Who buys it
Most catering work comes from four kinds of buyer.
Schools and academy trusts
School meals, breakfast clubs and holiday clubs, for one school or a whole trust.Councils
Cafés in leisure centres, libraries and civic buildings, meals for day centres, and catering for events.NHS and health bodies
Patient meals, staff restaurants and cafés for visitors.Colleges and universities
Refectories, cafés, halls of residence and hospitality for conferences.
What the tender pack asks for
Each buyer words it differently, but a catering tender usually asks for the same things.
Menus and nutrition
Sample menus and how they meet the buyer's standards. For schools in England, that usually means the School Food Standards.Food safety and allergens
Your food safety system, your hygiene ratings, and how you handle allergens from the order to the plate.Sourcing
Where your food comes from, how much is local or seasonal, and how you cut food waste.Staff and mobilisation
Kitchen staff often transfer to you under TUPE. The buyer wants to see how you take them on and keep meals running from the first day.Social value
What the contract does for the area, such as local jobs, training and local suppliers. It is scored as its own question.
How Jonty helps
Spotting and finding the work come with Scout. Qualifying, writing and submitting come with Bid Manager. Nothing goes to a buyer without your OK.
1. Spot it early
Jonty tracks contracts coming back to market, often months before the tender, and tells you who buys what.2. Find
Jonty watches Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland and EU-Supply, and TED once you switch it on. It emails you the contracts that fit. No keyword lists: tell Jonty what you do in a short chat or call.3. Qualify
Jonty fetches the tender pack, reads every page and checks it against your Vault, where you keep your certificates, policies and past bids. Then it tells you to bid or pass, and shows the page behind each reason.4. Write
Jonty drafts each answer from your past bids and evidence, and leaves out anything it can't back up. You check it, change it and approve it.5. Submit
Once you approve the bid, Jonty fills in the buyer's portal and submits it for you before the deadline.
Where it's filed
CPV codes buyers use
Buyers tag each notice with a CPV code. These are the ones this work most often sits under. Jonty reads every notice in full, so a contract filed under an odd code still reaches you.
Questions people ask
Where are public sector catering contracts advertised?
Larger contracts go on Find a Tender. Many smaller ones in England go on Contracts Finder, and Scottish ones on Public Contracts Scotland. Some work is given out through frameworks instead of a full tender. Jonty watches these sources and emails you the contracts that fit.
Do school catering contracts follow the School Food Standards?
In England, most school food has to meet the School Food Standards, so buyers usually ask how your menus meet them. Read the specification for the buyer's own rules too, such as portion sizes or how much is fresh.
Can Jonty write the menu and food safety answers?
With Bid Manager, yes. Jonty drafts each answer from your past bids and evidence, such as your menus, allergen procedures and hygiene ratings, and leaves out anything it can't back up. You check it, change it and approve it.
See the catering contracts that fit your business
Try Scout free for 21 days, no card needed. Tell Jonty what you do and your first matches arrive the same day.