Provision of Patient & Retail Catering Services - Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust (Interim Arrangement)

Overview

The contract covers the provision of patient and retail catering services, including food preparation, service delivery and associated operational support services required to maintain continuity of catering services across the Trust's estate. The Trust will award this contract using a direct award procedure in accordance with section 41 and paragraph 13 of Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act 2023, which permits direct award in cases of extreme and unavoidable. The services covered by this contract are strictly necessary to ensure continuity of critical patient and retail catering services at Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust. Indeed, Patient catering is fundamental to the Trust's delivery of safe, effective and legally compliant patient care. The Trust's current catering contract was placed in 2023. In anticipation of its expiry, the Trust devised a compliant procurement strategy centred on a call-off competition under an existing framework agreement for patient and retail catering. Whilst a change in scoping requirements necessitated the cancellation of the initial call-off competition, the Trust acted promptly by launching a replacement competition at the earliest opportunity. Throughout both competitions, the Trust had reasonably envisaged securing a short extension with the incumbent to bridge the period until mobilisation of a new provider, and discussions had progressed positively to that end. However, on 13 April 2026 the incumbent notified the Trust that it would not agree to an extension and would cease delivering services with effect from 26 April 2026. Given this extremely compressed timeframe, it was not possible to conduct a compliant procurement and mobilise a replacement provider. The Trust accordingly cancelled the call-off competition without award and must now make a direct award to safeguard continuity of essential services. The direct award is for patient and retail catering and is limited in duration to 12+6 months, being the minimum period necessary to maintain continuity of services whilst the Trust conducts a fully compliant competitive procurement for a longer-term contract. The conditions for reliance on the urgency ground under Paragraph 13 of Schedule 5 are satisfied: (a) the incumbent's withdrawal at extremely short notice has created a genuine and immediate need to secure continuity of patient catering, without which the Trust would be exposed to serious risks to patient safety and potential breach of its statutory and regulatory obligations; (b) the timeframe within which a replacement provider must be appointed is insufficient to permit any form of competitive tendering, whether under the Procurement Act 2023 or by way of call-off under an existing framework; and (c) the urgency is not attributable to the Trust's conduct; the Trust took all reasonable steps to procure the services compliantly (including seeking to secure a short extension). The need for a direct award has arisen as, notwithstanding the Trust's efforts to agree an extension, and there being reasonable grounds on which the Trust expected that such an extension would be agreed, the incumbent unexpectedly decided not to extend the existing contract. The direct award will be made on 23 April 2026 to accommodate immediate mobilisation and service commencement, subject to agreement of Heads of Terms. Full terms and conditions governing the contract will be finalised within 4 weeks.