2011: The power brokers

8th December 2011, 4:26pm

Who are the people currently wielding the biggest clout in the world of public sector catering? An expert judging panel, pulled together by Cost Sector Catering, has come up with a Top 20 list for 2011. David Foad reports

There is no ranking in the Public Sector Most Influential Top 20. You are either in it or not.

And we've got a brand new list for 2011 that reflects the shifting dynamics of the public sector as well as the issues that are currently high on the industry's agenda.

Of the 20 most influential names of 2010, just eight remain. The 12 newcomers reflect changes at the head of key catering organisations and in the focus of caterers as they look ahead to 2012.

And what a year it promises to be. Hotelympia, the UK's biggest catering and hospitality trade show, returns in February, after which our attention will be locked on to the celebrations to mark The Queen's Diamond Jubilee in June followed by the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, which kick off in July.

Both the Jubilee and the Olympics promise to put the UK at the centre of world attention for most of the summer, offering caterers the chance to showcase themselves and the best of British food to the outside world and big opportunities to promote and market their services internally to customers.

The challenges these landmark events present explain why this year's list includes representatives from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), the Royal Household and the sector skills council People 1st, which is charged with making sure the industry has the trained workforce it needs.

And while these events are undoubtedly something to look forward to, there are plenty of causes for concern to occupy minds in the public sector.

The economic austerity programme being pursued by the Coalition Government is already biting hard into central Government, local authority and NHS budgets with a programme of cuts that, in some cases, have only just now started to be felt.

The financial hit that was already expected to last until 2013-2014, just before the next scheduled General Election, now threatens to be that much harder because the European economy as a whole is tottering under the strain of an apparently imploding Eurozone.

Which means that even as caterers do their best to adjust to the new financial reality of cut budgets, they are also being hit by reduced consumer demand as household purse strings are pulled tighter. This seriously hampers any chance of increasing revenue to match funding shortfalls.

And there is no let-up in sight on the regulatory and target-based demands facing the sector that were put in place before the current economic difficulties began.

Schools continue to be bound by the new nutritional standards that came into force in 2008 – at least most state primary and secondary schools do.

Mystifyingly, academies, free schools and independent schools are 'trusted' by the Government to do the right thing without any need to comply with these standards.

This mixed message is also reflected in the healthy eating and good nutrition campaigns that continue to be a focus of the Government's drive to tackle obesity and diet-related bad health.

According to papers in British medical publication The Lancet this summer, nearly half of UK men could be obese by 2030 if trends continue.

In that year it forecasts there will be 26 million obese people - a rise of 73% over the current 15 million – with four in 10 women similarly overweight.

And it estimates such figures could add a further £2 billion a year in medical costs for obesity-related diseases.

All of which piles yet more pressure on caterers to develop and promote healthier menus across all sectors of the industry.

However, some of the sting appears to have been taken out of the sense of urgency since the Department of Health announced its Obesity Call To Action in October.

Launching its plan to reduce the nation's intake by 5 billion calories a day, it offered little more by way of strategy than the simple expedient of "eating and drinking less". Many in the public sector, understandably, felt this was a cop out.

In addition to the onerous task of carrying out checks on health and nutrition, the industry has responsibility for meeting lower carbon dioxide emission targets. In its UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, the Government set out its plan to cut CO2 output by 34% of 1990 levels by 2020.

The Government's CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (formerly the Carbon Reduction Commitment) is a mandatory reporting and pricing scheme covering any organisation with an annual electricity bill of about £500,000 – sure to have an impact on the operations of a number of large-scale public sector catering operations.

Sustainability is another issue still high on the agenda, forcing the industry to look beyond simply the bottom line and factor in issues such as local and seasonal food sourcing, carbon footprint, logistical costs, Fairtrade, animal welfare and recycling.

Everyone agrees these are important concerns, the trouble is that although they promise long-term savings, there is an up-front cost to be paid now to incorporate them into your business practice.

That's not good news when funding is being squeezed, but the need to square that particular circle explains why representatives of the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the increasingly influential buying consortium Pro5 appear in this year's Top 20.

Lastly, the sector needs inspirational characters who can enthuse the next generation. That is why the catering education sector is also well represented in the list of infl uential trade people.

So let's meet the class of 2011. Geoff Booth is the Assistant Principal at Westminster Kingsway College and also chairman of PACE (Professional Association of Catering Education), representing 280 hospitality colleges throughout the UK. In these roles he is directly and indirectly responsible for nurturing the catering talent of tomorrow on which the industry must rely. Geoff also advises catering employers on how they can access funding to help train their staff.

Al Crisci is the catering manager at HMP High Down and a prime mover behind the Clink! Project. His was the inspiration behind The Clink restaurant –a commercial restaurant inside a working British prison – offering prisoners the chance to gain national catering qualifications, experience and training to help them fi nd full-time employment within the hospitality industry on release. He won the 2011 Cost Sector Catering Public Sector Award.

Professor David Foskett is associate dean of the School of Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure at the University of West London (formerly Thames Valley University). He pioneered the BSc in International Culinary Arts for Practicing Chefs, co-authored 'Practical Cookery' and 'The Theory of Catering' (which has sold more than 2 million copies) and developed the Junior Chefs Academy for local school children.

Dr Liz Goodwin is the chief executive of WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), which has launched a 'Love Food, Hate Waste' campaign that includes resources for local authorities to help spread the message that more and more waste must be recycled or reduced. It's a message that grows more and more urgent for the industry as the cost of landfill charges facing caterers is planned to rise over the next five years.

Karen Oliver is the current chair of the National Association of Care Catering (NACC) and catering manager for Nottingham City Council, where she is responsible for feeding in the city's care homes, for the community meals service and for 21 schools. For the NACC she's worked with Baroness Greengross on care personalisation and been part of a team of lobbyists raising the profile of nutrition in social care in parliament.

Julie Barker is the head of residential and catering services at Brighton University and managing director of The University Catering Organisation (TUCO) Ltd, a membership company for hospitality professionals that is dedicated to training, support, funding, standards, advice, career progression in further education. Julie has spent her career in the public sector, working in the NHS, for the police and in the education sector.

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 £165 million. Of that figure, £79 million is spent directly on operational feeding of UK armed forces personnel on active duty or training across the world, either directly by military caterers or by using 3 million ration packs a year.

Lynda Mitchell is the new chair of the Local Authority Caterers' Association (LACA), representing 135 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales who between them employ more than 100,000 staff who provide 3 million school lunches every day to children in 22,000 schools. LACA's National School Meals Week event this year attracting participation from 124 local authorities and contractors. In her day job she is commissioning and contracts manager with North Somerset Council Janice Gillan, who has considerable experience of healthcare catering gained over nearly 30 years within the National Health Service, is the chairman of the Hospital Caterers' Association (HCA).

The organisation, founded in 1948, has 400 members - senior healthcare catering professionals representing NHS Trusts across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. She won the Cost Sector Catering Healthcare Award in 2006.

Brian Wisdom is the chief executive of People 1st, the sector skills council for hospitality, passenger transport, travel and tourism in the UK with a remit to handle industry research, vocational learning and training. People 1st is active in promoting the number of women in senior management through its Women 1st initiative, championing apprenticeships to employers in the sector and running dedicated Olympic visitor training programmes for hospitality staff.

Brian Young is the chief executive of the British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF), a membership group promoting and protecting the interests of the frozen food industry across the foodservice and retail sectors. It supports research into the nutritional value of frozen food and the industry looks set to play an increasingly influential role as caterers look for solutions in the face of budget cuts.

Jamie Oliver is a one-man culinary phenomenon who combines the roles of TV celebrity chef, restaurateur, businessman, industry trainer and long-term campaigner for school meals. His Channel 4 series and political clout raised the profile of school food and helped usher in nutritional standards and extra funding. He's recently been vocal again, urging the Government not to abandon the gains the standards made in nutrition and uptake.

Owen Sidaway is acting head of catering services with Offender Employment Skills & Services, part of the National Offender Management Services (NOMS). He is responsible for feeding the 80,000-plus prisoners held in England and Wales, working with a budget of about £2.10 per person for three meals a day plus snacks.

His role involves input into decisions to award food, drink and kitchen equipment contracts  for about 130 institutions.

Jan Matthews is the head of catering, cleaning and waste services at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, one of the stand-out events in the nation's calendar next year and a chance for caterers to shine in the spotlight of the world's media.

She says: "I'm grabbing the chance to use the transformational power of the Games to celebrate and promote the variety and quality of British regional food."

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) using their £2 billion annual buying power to help local authorities in England and Wales save time, money and effort on common purchase items. 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 across 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 in the public sector.

Tony Goodger is the trade sector manager for the British Pork Executive (BPEX) and a passionate advocate of his industry to the foodservice sector. He works to help farmers and catering butchers provide the catering industry with the welfare quality it needs, helps the sector develop recipes that make good use of cheaper and alternative cuts and promotes pork consumption.

Penny Moore, chief executive of Hospitality Action, the catering industry charity that began life 170 years ago as the Hospitality Industry Benevolent Fund. It supports those diagnosed with life-altering illnesses, those suffering poverty, bereavement or domestic violence and those with sick and disabled children. It provides grants for food, clothing and central heating, supports isolated and lonely workers and holds drugs and alcohol awareness seminars.

Mark Hill is the executive chef at the House of Commons, where his role in the 'mother of parliaments' is to showcase British produce and culinary expertise for MPs, guests, visiting delegations from abroad and formal banquets. His role extends beyond mentoring chefs in the Westminster kitchens to membership of the English team at the Culinary Olympics and being on the Craft Guild of Chefs' Culinary Academy judging panel.

Edward Griffiths is the deputy master of the Royal Household and will be particularly influential in 2012 because of the national and global focus put on the royal family because of the celebrations to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The quality of food and menus he develops will generate international attention. He joined nine years ago after a career in hotels, restaurants and contract catering.