COUNTY councillors are hoping to avoid repeating the same mistakes after approving an action plan to counter last year’s school meals fiasco.

People were left hungry for answers last autumn after a number of schools in the county either failed to have their meals delivered or received them late.

Dorset County Council and catering firm Chartwells received the brunt of the criticism at the time. Chartwells was responsible for delivering 11,000 school meals a day under the terms of a £3.5million contact.

Last October, representatives of Chartwells were quizzed by Dorset County Council’s audit and scrutiny committee.

An action plan containing nine recommendations came out of that meeting, which came before the county council’s cabinet committee yesterday for approval.

These recommendations include having set criteria to determine what is a high value contract carrying significant risk and referring them to cabinet.

This will also involve identifying a single portfolio holder or service to be responsible for the successful delivery of the service. Another recommendation states that the assessment criteria for commissioning needed to be transparent.

Cllr Toni Coombs said she had always looked at this incident from the client’s point of view, the outcome for the children.

She said: “It was a very difficult period back in September. We monitored on a daily basis right the way through to the end of the Christmas term.

“I’m very pleased to say we are now down to what I would like to call normal contract delivery day to day niggles.”

Cllr Coombs said they hadn’t had any fresh reports similar to the major failings that occurred at the start of the autumn term.

She said: “All schools that were out of pocket through the issues have now all been reimbursed. There are no payments outstanding to any schools.

“I think we can draw a line under the whole saga now.”

Councillors also approved a draft Social Value Statement at the committee, setting out the authority’s commitment to local outcomes from commissioning and procurement activity.

Cllr Robert Gould, chairman of the cabinet, suggested the new measures in place would lead to a better process in the future.

He said: “We have before us a draft statement of social value which is the way in which we are going to take account of the new legislation related to procurement [activity], which means that we can actually bear in mind the impact of our own area when we are doing procurement.

“It was unfortunate the way the [school meals] contract was initially implemented, and there were particular reasons for that, but I think we have come out of it in a very positive way.”