News & Views

We are seeing a high level of discomfort within contracted and inhouse services at present where the struggle to maintain adequate staffing levels is exasperated by the pandemic and employee burn out, as well as a lack of applications within recruitment.

Food within the independent school marketplace is a cornerstone for parents and pupils. With a focus on nutrition, sporting endurance, welfare and mental health all being attributed to a catering service within your prospectus, the advice from Red Box would be to ensure your dining experience is a positive one. Are you at a crossroads in determining if your facilities should take these services in-house or to outsource? Red Box summarises the two positions.

Sustainability is now an important factor across many industries. Underwriting sustainability in procurement can be managed through investigation and understanding of the environment and social contexts as well as the benefits of building long term sustainable practices into the strategy and processes of your services.

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.