Canteen services

Tender description

The HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) Prison Retail Service provides approximately 80 000 prisoners the means to order goods (fresh and frozen food, ambient food and non-foods (e.g. toiletries)) using their own funds. The contract is a key operational service in maintaining a stable environment and supports the HMPPS decency agenda, which focuses on [normalising] aspects of prison life to prepare eligible prisoners for release. The current solution is provided as part of a nationally managed service providing wholesale goods, logistics/fleet and management of multiple workshops (17 in total), located within prisons utilising 520 prisoners to pick, pack and despatch an estimated 66 000 orders a week. This project is looking at the re-procurement of the service and looking to hear from interested parties capable of providing the wholesale goods and/or the management of multiple workshops. The primary objective of the service is to meet the demands of the paying consumers, providing a range of goods at prices comparable to that of convenience store retailers and responsive to the changing population demographics and external influences (e.g. healthy eating campaigns). The service aims to deliver orders in a timely, efficient manner while ensuring that prison security policies (national or local) are never contravened. Financially a key aim of the service is that it is self-financing and that the service overheads are covered through the cost of sales. The service must not exploit the customer (prisoner) population and instead should be seen as an opportunity both to play a key role in the operation of a prison environment and also providing opportunities for re-skilling and resettlement on release (e.g. job interviews, offers of work). The current model is provided through supplier(s) providing the following goods and services: 1) Wholesale goods: a wide range of goods which reflects the diversity of the est. 80 000 estate. Goods sold under the agreement must meet relevant security policies and can be subject to other influences (e.g. health campaigns); 2) Logistics: in the current model this involves delivery of wholesale goods to workshops (for picking and packing of orders) and onward delivery of orders to the customers at the prisons; 3) Management: this involves central, strategic management of the supply chain and operational service as well as providing workshop management for overseeing the picking and packing labour, which is provided through prison labour. It should be emphasised that this is the current model and as part of this project we wish to actively explore new and innovative options for how the service could be delivered whilst still meeting our objectives and business needs in future. However, the utilisation of serving prisoners is a must as it provides a key tool in maintaining prison order through productive labour but also supports one of HMPPS’ and MoJ’s key strategic objectives of rehabilitating prisoners as they have an opportunity to learn vocational skills and gain real-world job experience that can be used to gain employment on release.