Breaking News: “Outsourcing Has Failed Our Children and Our Workers – Bring School Catering Back In-House Now”
Barnet UNISON is calling on Barnet Council to end the failed outsourcing of school catering and bring the service back in-house.
At the upcoming Cabinet Committee meeting on 21 July 2025, Barnet Council will be asked to approve the continuation of an outsourced school meals contract. Barnet UNISON is demanding the Council reverse this recommendation and recognise the devastating impact outsourcing has had on schoolchildren, workers, and Barnet’s local economy.
John Burgess, Barnet UNISON Branch Secretary, said:
“For over a decade Barnet UNISON has warned of the dangers of outsourcing. Those warnings were ignored – and the result has been catastrophic. Low-paid Black women workers dismissed, children denied hot meals, and a kosher kitchen built with public money now left empty. Enough is enough.”
The Case Against Outsourcing:
- ❌ Children Left Without Hot Meals: Barnet pupils were denied nutritious school meals due to the collapse of the kosher meal service.
- ❌ Black Female Workers Dismissed: 41 Black catering staff lost their jobs when the kosher kitchen service collapsed. Only the trade union fought to secure their redundancy pay.
- ❌ Wasted Public Assets: Barnet now has a kosher kitchen standing idle – a visible symbol of outsourcing gone wrong.
- ❌ Poor Pay and No Pensions: Catering workers are excluded from the Local Government Pension Scheme and face poverty wages, resulting in reliance on housing benefits and in-work support – costs borne by the taxpayer.
- ❌ A False Economy: Barnet claims savings, but the reality is a transfer of cost from the Council to the welfare state, undermining long-term financial sustainability.
A Better Alternative: In-House Services
Barnet Council ran a successful in-house school catering service for decades. In 2014–15, it generated a £190,000 surplus. Schools had confidence in the service and trusted its quality and reliability.
There has been no serious financial modelling on bringing the service back in-house. Despite citing inflation and “market pressures,” the current Cabinet report presents no updated analysis of how in-house provision could now be rebuilt to meet modern needs.
Council Equality Commitments Undermined
Barnet Council’s corporate values include a commitment to equality and inclusion, yet outsourcing has overwhelmingly harmed Black, female, low-paid workers – a group protected under the Equality Act 2010.
“This decision contradicts the Council’s equality duties,”.
“How can you talk about inclusion while outsourcing continues to hurt the very communities you claim to support?”
Labour Party Policy Backs Our Call
- Ending Outsourcing: Labour’s 2021 Conference endorsed the “biggest wave of insourcing in a generation,” including school services such as catering.
- Tackling In-Work Poverty: Labour’s platform includes stronger rights at work, a real living wage, secure pensions, and an end to exploitative contracts.
- Racial Justice at Work: Outsourcing has been shown to disproportionately harm Black workers. Labour-aligned campaigns highlight insourcing as a racial justice imperative.
- Community Wealth Building: Labour supports local procurement and public ownership to retain wealth and secure good jobs in our communities.
Continuing to outsource the school meals contract undermines Labour values in one of the most diverse boroughs in the UK.
UNISON Demands:
- Immediately halt the outsourcing procurement.
- Publish a full Equality Impact Assessment.
- Commission an updated in-house service feasibility report.
- Bring Barnet’s school meals service back in-house.
For further information or interview requests, please contact:
Barnet UNISON at contactus@barnetunison.org.uk
To read Barnet UNISON report submitted to Cabinet Committee 22 July 2025 click on link below
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