Tower Hamlets - Kitchen Upgrades

Project scope

Overview

As part of Tower Hamlets programme to support the schools in their ability to deliver Free School Meals to all students in the borough, Cantium Catering Consultancy supported the installation of kitchen equipment and mobilising the project across all of the secondary schools in Tower Hamlets.

Procurement of a suitable supplier

We completed a best value procurement process of four suppliers; finding a supplier that we felt would work well with us to successfully project manage and deliver the required installations on time and within budget.

Installation timeline

The expected timeline was a phased approach over the 2023 summer holidays, starting with the simpler installations and moving on to the more complex sites during Q4 2023. The installations were RAG coded depending on their complexity and cost, with the green sites being the first ones expected to launch and the red sites being set for a later start date between October 2023 and January 2024.

As the site surveys progressed it became clear that there was a desire that all schools would like to be able to deliver this programme by October half term.

Project timeline

We were responsible for the entire process of the kitchen upgrades including:

• Initial specification of equipment from site surveys
• Secondary site surveys to establish the requirement for any enabling works
• Purchase orders and the confirming of orders
• Enabling works – PFI and local contractor
• Coordinating Installation
• Commissioning
• Snagging
• Staff training
• Invoicing
• Budget approval for any unforeseen variations
• Final sign off of expenditure and confirmation of this to the council

During this period, we held weekly project management meetings with the Council providing detailed information to all key stake holders. We liaised with local clients on installation dates and enabling works and when these needed to be completed by. We followed up with site installation inspections and the management of any required snagging. We also arranged and delivered training on the new equipment.

Equipment fitted

Across 16 schools, in total we fitted the following equipment:

Alterations to ventilation

In most of the installations we undertook, ventilation was not a cause for concern, however, where issues were found, we managed to resolve these issues in a number of ways:

• One kitchen needed a slight reconfiguration of the kitchen island
• One kitchen needed an extension to capture the steam from the combination oven
• One kitchen for many reasons required an entirely new canopy and extract system

We personally oversaw all these installations / alterations to ensure they were satisfactory and were complaint with current regs.

External service Pods and changes to the queuing arrangements

To ensure the schools had sufficient service spaces, we worked with clients to secure suitable locations for external catering pods. We worked with school business managers to find ways in which queuing could be better managed.

Summing up the Project

Albeit that we were not expected to deliver all of the schools before January 2024 at the earliest, working closely with our suppliers, PFI providers and local client contractors, we accelerated the installations and delivered 16 kitchen installations during the 6-week 2023 summer holiday.

We achieved a significant underspend on the projected budget as managed expenditure closely. All kitchens are now fully operational with no issues, so a hugely successful mobilisation.