Lunch is served – Norse delivers Norfolk’s Free School Meals on time

When the Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) timescale was announced, Norfolk County Council appointed Norse Commercial services to project manage the implementation. Two months into the new service, the company has produced a summary of what it involved.

With less than 12 months to review, plan and deliver individual school needs that ranged from additional cutlery and supplies through to complete kitchen builds and refits in the county’s 373 primary and infant schools (including all those in the Broadland area), Norse Commercial Director Terrance Isaac-Griffiths (TIG) and his team recognised that they had their work cut out.

“We knew the only way was to conduct detailed site visits, and document the essential requirements needed to handle the increased number of meals each school was likely to be providing after September 2014,” he explains. “Having completed then initial audit, we had to ensure that we managed the Head Teachers’ expectations, and during the next phase regular updates and consultation were key to achieving this.”

Copies of the Needs Assessments were sent to Head Teachers after the initial visit so they had details of what equipment was to be ordered for their school and when delivery could be expected.

Norse has its own engineering division dedicated to supporting the educational catering operation and this team played a major role in fulfilling the installation programme. However the volume of work and the tight timescales meant that the company also used some outside contractors to assist with the refitting.

“Our main challenge was availability of the equipment from suppliers; Norfolk was not the only county placing orders,” said Sonya Smith, Service Engineering and Catering Equipment Supervisor at Norse.

The whole project generated considerable economic benefit in terms of work for local and regional suppliers and contractors.

Norse Account Managers also offered support to the Head Teachers with regard to the logistics of managing the increase in meal numbers. In addition, 150 new jobs have been created in school kitchens, and kitchen staff hours have been extended in nearly every school.

On the 4th September 2014, the first day of the new academic year in Norfolk, all of the county’s primary schools were serving children with hot meals.

There were a handful of schools that required power upgrades in their kitchens before Norse could install their required heavy equipment. For these schools, the company worked closely with the Head Teachers and kitchen staff, and where necessary, put contingency plans in place.

The feedback from Mrs Binks Neate-Evans Head Teacher at West Earlham Infant and Primary School, which had a complete new kitchen/server installed, is typical of the praise schools had for Norse.

“From a school perspective it went very, very smoothly, particularly given the timescales,” she says. “The contractors were well organised and the kitchen was ready to cook from on the first day of term. We have benefitted enormously from having an experienced chef who quickly adapted from essentially being a restaurant chef to being able to deliver up to 300 meals per day. He was supported by an experienced Norse member of staff to help induct him into cooking for schools.”

The task finally over, and six weeks into the new regime, looking back at the achievements TIG commented, “The team worked tirelessly over the preceding 12 months to achieve a near 100% completion. But even in the very few schools where we had to wait to have the 3-phase power connected, our contingency planning ensured all pupils could receive a free midday meal. It is a real credit to all parties involved that their co-operative approach and the jointly agreed goals delivered such a successful start to the introduction of UIFSM.”

Some Key facts:

• 373 schools visited and fully audited
• 170 site visits to assess gas and electrical supply for additional ovens, fridges etc
• New equipment installed/delivered
  • 95 x Fridges
  • 58 x Freezers
  • 92 x Ovens,
  • 67 x Hot Cupboards
  • 259 x sets of Cutlery
  • 59 x tables/chairs sets
• 25,200 service engineer team man-hours
• Meals uptake up from 34.3% to 57.6% with growth set to continue as winter months approach
• 150 additional staff to cover