The Source

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust (FT) runs community services, mental health and learning disability services across Somerset, as well as acute hospital services from both Musgrove Park and Yeovil Hospitals, and a quarter of Somerset’s GP practices.

The trust employs over 11,000 colleagues who provide or support patient services. From therapists to nurses, doctors, researchers, scientists, porters, cleaners, kitchen colleagues, accountants, those who teach the next generation of clinicians and the receptionists who welcome patients - the contribution of all their colleagues is invaluable.

As a foundation trust, Somerset FT benefits from the support and dedication of a team of volunteers, a Council of Governors, Leagues of Friends, charities and partners.

In 2022 Somerset FT launched a Green Plan, which sets out plans across the next three years on how it will reduce its carbon footprint. It aims to tackle the climate emergency and sets out how it will reduce its environmental impact, while also delivering in three key areas: improving patient care, saving lives and reducing costs and waste.

Actions will include reducing reliance on single use plastics, improving biodiversity on hospital sites, and seeking to improve resilience for climate related weather events, such as heat waves.

The Green Plan has a section that focuses on catering services, with a key objective to increase sourcing food from local suppliers.

The trust’s community catering service is run by facilities managers with a combined service of over 100 years between them. Anna Warman is the facilities manager, alongside Jane Wills as deputy facilities manager, and Amanda Vickery, who works across community services and one of the acute hospitals as Catering Operations Manager for Inpatients and Retail.

All three began their careers in the NHS as catering assistants and diet chefs, and have transitioned through catering teams in various roles as chefs, team leaders and supervisors, and then into managerial roles. They bring a whole wealth of skills, knowledge and experience, and it’s clear to see that they work well together and make a strong team.

A Love British Food Hospital working group site visit they all attended, at Hollis Mead Organic Dairy Farm in West Dorset, inspired Anna, Jane and Amanda to take steps to become more sustainable and look to local suppliers for the trust’s produce.

Wholesome, old school, natural tasting dairy is our religion. From our wild, organic farm in the beating heart of Dorset, we’ve created a creamy cult to worship non-industrial, eco-friendly, low volume, high taste and guilt-free dairy production. Our ethos is simple: milk just once a day, and feed our cows purely grass and wild flowers grown on our farm. The proof is all in the taste. Hollis Mead.

Anna explains: “Our visit to Hollis Mead was hugely inspiring and left a huge impact on us all. As our NHS trust has grown, we’ve become reliant on larger suppliers, but seeing the benefit that sourcing local procedure has on both the environment and our patients, has motivated and given us the appetite to push forward with securing more local produce where we can.”

First on their list to review was how they could procure dairy and bread products in a more sustainable way. Working with the trust’s sustainability lead, they developed a new tender specification that put local suppliers higher up in the weighting criteria – also setting a precedent for future tenders. 

The challenge for the trust is that with a total of 36 sites requiring these products, there are logistical difficulties with distribution of goods to each site, with some of the smaller units only requiring small quantities, and cost of fuel being an obvious concern. 

A number of organisations applied as part of the tender process, which were then followed with presentations from each supplier. Jane and Anna both found it hugely beneficial to meet each supplier, allowing time for detailed conversations about the products and the requirements for the trust.

Following a competitive tender process, the contract was awarded to a local supplier based in Weston-Super-Mare, which is new to the healthcare industry, but has experience in managing contracts within education. The new supplier has already shown a positive commitment to the environment by ensuring that all deliveries are free of plastic wrapping.