Demand for The Litmus Partnership’s Verify service has grown by nearly 15% over the past 12 months, while the service has helped recover £202,310 for clients – a 56% increase on the previous year’s figure of £129,562 – as more schools and Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) seek greater visibility over the performance and cost of their outsourced catering and cleaning contracts.
The growth comes as schools face continued financial pressure and increasingly look for ways to ensure operational spending is tightly controlled and delivering value for money.
Litmus Verify is a specialist performance insight platform that enables schools and MATs to assess whether their catering and cleaning providers are delivering against agreed contractual costs and standards. The platform also benchmarks a number of important KPIs against comparable schools across the UK, not just from a cost perspective, but also around operational performance, Free School Meal uptake, service quality and user satisfaction.
The +£200k recoveries represent money returned to schools and MATs where contract costs, fees or service delivery were found to be out of step with agreed expectations – funding that can instead be redirected into education, facilities and improving the student experience.
Education is the sector The Litmus Partnership was founded in, and over the years the business has supported thousands of schools and MATs in reviewing and improving their operational performance.
Phil Silva, Finance Director at The Litmus Partnership, said: “Schools simply cannot afford for outsourced contracts to drift unchecked. They are under enormous financial pressure, which means leadership teams are scrutinising spending more closely than ever before. Every pound matters.
“For many schools, the procurement and appointment of an outsourced provider is heavily front-loaded, with significant time invested into tendering, specification development and contract negotiations. However, signing the contract is not the finish line – it’s the starting point. Schools still need to dedicate time to monitoring performance, challenging where necessary, and ensuring providers continue to deliver against expectations throughout the life of the agreement.
“That’s where issues around overpayments, inefficiencies and service under-delivery can begin to creep in – sometimes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds across large Multi-Academy Trusts.
“What makes Verify particularly powerful is the depth of data behind it. We have one of the UK’s largest education benchmarking databases, built from years of supporting thousands of schools and MATs. That means we understand what good looks like – whether that’s food costs, Free School Meal uptake, operational performance or contract value – and we can quickly identify discrepancies or opportunities that traditional reporting often misses.
“Schools don’t just need data – they need context. That level of visibility is becoming increasingly important as schools look to protect budgets while still maintaining high-quality services for pupils and staff.”
Among the schools benefiting from the service is Holy Cross Catholic High School. Through Litmus’ ongoing monitoring of the school’s catering account, alongside support during year-end reviews and budget negotiations, the school typically achieves savings in the region of £7,000 per year. The Business Manager at Holy Cross Catholic High School shared: “Litmus’ expertise has been invaluable. They produce monthly reports which we go through with our catering contractors. The Litmus team offers experienced insight when we analyse the figures. I know that with Litmus we are in safe hands.”
Phil Silva added: “The financial savings are significant, but equally important is the confidence schools gain from having independent oversight and meaningful benchmarking data.
“Nobody can match the scale of education data we hold or the depth of expertise we’ve built supporting schools and MATs across the UK. That insight is backed by robust processes, including ISO9001 standards and Cyber Secure accreditation to safeguard the data schools entrust to us.
“Schools using Verify know they can rely on Litmus to monitor contract performance, challenge where necessary and help ensure providers continue to deliver value throughout the life of the agreement. That gives leadership teams the confidence to focus on what matters most – education and student wellbeing.”
To learn more about Litmus Verify, please visit https://litmuspartnership.co.uk/services/litmus-verify/
