The 2012 list of the most influential people in public sector catering shows 10 changes from 2011, a churn of 50% that reflects the way this Top 20 ranking has developed since it was launched in 2009.
This year’s list from Cost Sector Catering’s panel of independent judges broadly mirrors changes within the wider industry.
Some of the new names acknowledge changes at the top of some of the catering industry’s key organisations, with Anne Bull, for instance, replacing Lynda Mitchell now that she has taken over as chair of the Local Authority Caterers’ Association (LACA).
Other new entries reflect a shift in the power base, with perennial thorn-in-the-school-catering-establishment Jamie Oliver giving way this year to Education Secretary Michael Gove’s choices of Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent.
The co-founders of the Leon restaurant chain have been appointed by Gove to draw up a School Meals Plan for publication in spring 2013. They are right now in the thick of that process, talking regularly to schools and the main education catering organisations, as well as key officials at the Department for Education and, one would hope, Michael Gove himself.
By any measure their ability to shape the future direction of the school meals service is significant and that is why they feature in the 2012 list.
Procurement of food, drink, equipment and services is a major responsibility for any caterer operating in the public sector, never more so than at a time of ever-tighter budgets, and the Government has made a number of efforts in recent years to streamline the process to achieve savings.
The latest incarnation, established to deliver ready-to-use framework agreements, aggregated contracts and reduced contracts through e-purchasing, is the Government Procurement Service (GPS) and its managing director David Shields has been voted onto the Top 20 on that basis.
GPS is probably still too new to have fully established itself and for that reason the judges felt that buying agency Pro5, and the five groups it represents, is still the most significant procurement body for caterers and that is why its business development director Darren Byford has been included for the third year in a row.
Health and nutrition are issues that again figured highly in the judges’ considerations, alongside the worryingly high incidence of malnutrition in the care and hospitals sectors of the industry.
Poor diet and accompanying ill health, including obesity, coronary heart disease, type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure and liver disease have just been highlighted as major concerns in the PS100 ‘Health and Nutrition in the Public Sector Report’ launched recently.
This drew attention to the lack of a ‘joined-up’ approach that should be linking Government targets for health with its funding and support for good nutrition in the public sector. These issues are real concerns for a number of our Top 20, who showed their support by attending the QEII Centre in London last month for the report launch.
Such issues are reflected in the presence in the Top 20 list this year of Dame Dianne Jeffries, chair of Age UK and head of the Malnutrition Task Force, and Helen Davidson, head of the British Dietetic Association.
The influence within public sector catering of contract companies has usually been acknowledged in the Top 20 listing. In 2009, Val Carter’s pioneering corporate social responsibility work with Aramark led to her inclusion; the following year Tony Byrne’s influence in the education sector as business director of Chartwell’s was recognised.
This year, Simon Cox, managing director of ISS Facility Services (healthcare, education and defence), makes the list after his company made strong contract gains in 2012 in each of these sectors where in-house caterers retain significant influence.
So let’s meet those who comprise the Top 20 ‘most influential’ people in public sector catering for 2012.
Geoff Booth should really stand up and take a bow. The chief executive of the Professional Association for Catering Education (PACE) and assistant principal and director of the School of Hospitality at Westminster Kingsway College makes the Top 20 list for the fourth year in a row – the only ever-present member.
Karen Oliver is in her second year as chair of the National Association of Care Catering (NACC), in addition to her day job as operations manager for Nottingham City Council. During her time in office the NACC’s ‘No One Should Go Hungry Campaign’ won the 2011 Cost Sector Catering Marketing Award, and the association launched the first Dehydration in Older People Awareness Week. She has also presided over the NACC’s 25th anniversary celebrations this year that reached their climax at the annual training and development forum in Blackpool in September.
Julie Barker is the managing director of The University Caterers Organisation (TUCO) Ltd and head of hospitality and accommodation at the University of Brighton. TUCO Ltd was formed in October from two separate TUCO organisations and is responsible for promoting professional standards, excellence in training and development and effective procurement through a range of framework agreements. In June, she was inducted into the prestigious Women 1st Top 100 Club.
Anne Bull took over as chair of the Local Authority Caterers’ Association (LACA) in September, following a year as deputy chair. Her role as head of the UK-wide school meals organisation means she represents an important voice in public sector catering. She recently headed LACA’s successful and high-profile National School Meals Week promotion and has been invited to join the Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent-led group preparing a School Meals Plan for delivery to Education Secretary Michael Gove in spring 2013.
Janice Gillan is well into her second year as chair of the Hospital Caterers’ Association (HCA), a role she combines with her day job as senior catering manager within NHS Ayrshire & Arran in Scotland. She recently announced, jointly with the NASCC, the launch of Nutrition & Hydration Day on March 20 2013 to raise awareness of the importance of good nutritional care – particularly among older and more vulnerable people.
Owen Sidaway is head of catering services, offender employment skills and services with the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), in charge of making sure the 86,900 prisoners in England and Wales get three nutritious meals a day plus snacks on a budget of £1.87 per person. Premier Foods recently signed a four-year deal to supply all publicly-run prisons in England and Wales with Hovis and Mothers Pride bread.
David Shields was appointed managing director of the Government Procurement Service (GPS) in June 2011, an ‘accounting officer’ role meaning he holds final responsibility for procurement. GPS is the successor organisation to Buying Solutions, a trading fund that can make a profit. When he took over, Government spending through the procurement arrangements operated by GPS was £2.5bn. His target is to increase that to £5bn.
Group Captain Andy Killey is head of Defence Fuel and Food Services, which means he is responsible for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) food supply contract worth £165m. Of that figure, £79m is spent directly on operational feeding of UK armed forces personnel on active duty or training throughout the world, either directly by military caterers or by use of three million ration packs a year.
Bill Kennedy is facilities services manager with Tayside Contracts, the commercially based local authority contracting organisation providing catering, cleaning, roads maintenance, vehicle maintenance and winter maintenance throughout the Tayside area of Scotland. He recently took over as chair of ASSIST (the Association of Service Solutions in Scotland).
Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent are the joint-founders of the Leon restaurant chain and it was to one of their restaurants that Jamie Oliver took leading Conservatives David Cameron, Michael Gove and Andrew Lansley before the 2010 General Election to show them how good food can be delivered well. Once in power, Gove signed up the pair earlier this year to look at recent improvements in school meals and propose the next step in a School Meals Plan they expect to publish in early 2013.
David Bentley is a director of The Russell Partnership consultancy and chairman of the UK and Ireland arm of the Foodservice Consultants Society International (FCSI). FCSI members are the catering service experts called in by clients – both public and private sector – who need concepts, design services, kitchen fit-outs, catering service contracts and advice.
Paul O’Brien is the chief executive of the Association for Public Sector Excellence (APSE), a not-for-profit local government body working with more than 300 councils throughout the UK. It claims to be the foremost specialist in local authority front line services, including school meals, and uses research, seminars, briefing papers, policy proposals, case studies and awards to champion excellence throughout the public sector.
Dianne Jeffrey is the chair and a trustee of charity Age UK and heads the Malnutrition Task Force, an independent group of experts across health, social care and local government united to address the problem of avoidable and preventable malnutrition in older people. Dealing with the effects of malnutrition is estimated to cost £13bn a year and up to 3m people are either malnourished or at risk – more than 1m of them aged over 65.
Chris Moore is chief executive of The Clink Charity, which promotes the work of prison-based The Clink restaurants, which aim to reduce the number of re-offenders by equipping prisoners with qualifications, skills and real restaurant and kitchen experience while they serve their time so that can be put to use once released. Following the prototype at HMP High Down, a second restaurant was opened in Cardiff in the summer.
Professor David Foskett is associate dean of the School of Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure at the University of West London. He pioneered the BSc in International Culinary Arts for Practicing Chefs, co-authored 'Practical Cookery' and 'The Theory of Catering' – which together have sold more than two million copies – and pioneered the Saturday morning Junior Chef's Academy for local high school children.
Dr Liz Goodwin is the chief executive of WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), which this year launched the Hospitality and Food Service Agreement. This initiative has already signed up more than 120 catering and hospitality organisations and companies to voluntarily cut back on food and packaging waste. It follows a campaign called ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ that targeted local authorities.
Darren Byford is the business development director responsible for food at Pro5, a consortium of five buying organisations (Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation, Central Buying Consortium, North East Procurement Organisation, West Mercia Suppliers and Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation) that use their combined £2bn annual buying power to help local authorities in England and Wales save time, money and effort on commonly purchased items.
Helen Davidson is honorary chair of the British Dietetic Association (BDA), the professional body for dietitians in the UK, and in her day job is catering strategy dietitian at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The BDA has recently adopted a deliberately more outspoken stance on health and nutrition issues in the UK, last month launching a publication called ‘The Nutrition and Hydration Digest: Improving Outcomes Through Food and Beverage Services’ that is aimed at those involved in food provision in care settings.
Simon Cox is managing director at ISS Facility Services Healthcare, Education and Defence in UK, which turns over more than £300m a year and employs 14,500 employees in these key elements of the public sector. During his time at the helm, ISS Mediclean has maintained its market-leading position in the provision of soft facility services within the NHS and made gains within the education and defence market sectors.
David Russell helped set up the Russell Partnership foodservice consultancy in 1989, led the creation of the Food Strategy for the London Olympic Games in 2012, continues to sit on the London Food Board executive group and chairs the Food Legacy Group for the GLA. His food blueprint for the Olympics is heavily influencing the organisers of the 2013 Winter Olympics in Soche, Russia, and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. He is also working closely with universities such as Bangor to introduce pioneering catering solutions.
PSMI Sponsors
The 2012 Public Sector Most Influential Top 20 is sponsored by Falcon Williams, Unilever Food Solutions and Zenith Hygiene Group. The support of these supplier companies allows Cost Sector Catering to organise this annual event and provides a valuable forum for catering industry leaders to debate the important issues facing us.
Public Sector Most Influential Top 20 in 2012
Geoff Booth, Westminster Kingsway College & PACE (Professional Association of Catering Education)
Karen Oliver, Chair of the National Association of Care Catering (NACC)
Julie Barker, Managing Director of The University Caterers Organisation (TUCO) Ltd
Anne Bull, Chair of Local Authority Caterers’ Association (LACA)
Janice Gillan, Chair of the Hospital Caterers’ Association (HCA)
Owen Sidaway, Head of Catering Services, Offender Employment Skills & Services, National Offender Management Service (NOMS)
David Shields, MD of Government Procurement Service (GPS)
Andy Killey, Head of Defence Fuel and Food Services
Bill Kennedy, Chair of ASSIST, head of Tayside contracts
Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent, Leon co-founders, School Meals Action Plan
David Bentley, chair of FCSI UK & Ireland
Paul O’Brien, CEO of the Association for Public Sector Excellence (APSE)
Dianne Jeffrey, chair of Age UK and head of Malnutrition Task Force
Chris Moore, Chief Executive, The Clink Charity
David Foskett, University of West London - Associate Dean of School of Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure
Liz Goodwin, Chief Executive of WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme)
Darren Byford, Business Development Director, Pro5 buying consortium
Helen Davidson, head of the British Dietetic Association (BDA)
Simon Cox, ISS public sector
David Russell, Russell Partnership, London Food Group universities
PSMI Top 20 2011 – the judges
Sue Harrison, Director of Catering and Retail Services at the House of Commons
Vic Laws, head of AVL Consultancy
Philippe Rossiter, chief executive of the Institute of Hospitality
Malcolm Harling, UK sales and marketing director with Falcon/Williams
James Allred, channel marketing manager at Unilever Food Solutions
David Foad, editor Cost Sector Catering magazine