News & Views

As Ofsted look to regain lost ground on School auditing, one focus to prove an outstanding school status, is the school lunch provision and healthy eating awareness.

 We are pleased to announce we’re now listed on the Independent Schools'​ Bursars Association!

We have taken another step forward and invited Maggie to join the Red Box Consultancy Services team.

It has been a busy year for Red Box as we made our way back into the swing of compliance, coaching and procurement working on a variety of Client projects. We wanted to update you on our continuous professional development over the past 12 months.

Red Box often work with Public Sector Clients who are quite rightly informed by their Local Government Pension Scheme provider, that they need to consider the cost implications and stability of affected service staff pensions. Here is a summary explanation of the process and costs attached when tendering is the best option.

We often see Client and Contractor relationships breakdown when there is no formal recognition of complaints. Often a break clause allows Clients to leave a contract where continued default occurs, however there are often no formal records of complaints at a unit level which leads to frustration on both sides at management performance meetings. Here Red Box provides a draft complaints procedure to target those niggly issues within your contracted services, ensuring effective, timely responses. It should also provide a robust record where a Client wishes to show contract default or escalate frustrations.

In 2019, the BRC (British Retail Consortium) rebranded as BRCGS (Brand Reputation through Compliance of Global Standards). Many retailers require BRCGS standards as a minimum – especially for wholesale food production, supply and distribution or storage. Red Box complete regular quarterly audits for some clients to establish whether suppliers and distributers have recent certification and make recommendations based on our findings. This provides reassurances to continue the supply relationship or to recommend improvements or supply halt. Unannounced audits are usually preferred by retailers as these provide a realistic insight into the standards applied within the suppliers business.

The concept of no office space is about choice, flexibility and freedom in the work place. Having trust within the team to manage their time remotely in an agile environment is heralded as creating better engagement but required a leap of faith that was never considered by mainstream workplaces until Covid hit.

Following a turbulent year in Contract Catering, many of our clients have moved to Cost Plus models or Cost Plus with Guarantees to weather the storm. But what does this actually mean?

When working with clients, we quite often recommend the installation of a combination oven to improve quality and consistency in cooking. But there are other benefits too.