Around 100 delegates met at the Chesford Grange Hotel, Kenilworth on Friday, February 17th for the first LACA National Seminar of 2012.

Welcomed by national chair Lynda Mitchell, the assembled delegates were keen to hear from speakers on some of the most pressing issues the association is facing this year, with thoughts and feedback following the event to lead into the National Training and Exhibition event in July.

First up, Assistant Chief Executive at APSE (Association of Public Sector Excellence) Mark Bramah spoke about the challenging times school caterers were currently facing in light of some of the dramatic austerity cuts that many local authorities are undertaking.

He described the impacts the cuts had been making on service areas, and some of the ways in which caterers could look to identify potential efficiency savings to ensure they could continue to provide a high quality service.

Geoff Tucker, Sales Director at Norse Commercial Services took the stand to show how their method of working had reaped rewards with contracts awarded across the country since their inception three years ago.

He was followed by Clive Hammond of Suffolk County Council who described how Suffolk’s divestment of services had led to the launch of the new company Eastern Facilities Management Solutions, and he detailed their achievements to date since their launch just three months ago.

THe final session of the morning saw Alan Beazley from the Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion described the changes employers were going to have to make in order to deal with an ageing workforce and the removal of compulsory retirement.

All the morning's speakers formed a panel to take questions from delegates before lunch.

In the afternoon, delegates were keen to hear from Lynda Mitchell – who sits as a stakeholder on the DWP panel discussing the proposed Welfare Reform Bill with specific regard to Universal Credit - about her understanding of the ways in which the changes might impact school caterers, particularly regarding Free School Meals.

This was followed by a debate on the potential issues led by business journalist Nadine Dereza, with the help of panellists Lin O’Brien of Hertfordhsire Catering, former LACA chair Pat Fellowes, Simon James of Eden Foodservice and Lynda Mitchell.

Delegates left the day feeling clearer about the challenges they were facing this year, with a good indication for the focus of the Training & Exhibition event in July, and some excellent ideas on how to tackle these challenges when they got back to their own catering environments.