Recommendation 3

The Department did not have the information it needed to manage Edenred’s performance and understand whether the scheme was meeting the needs of 6 COVID 19: the free school meals voucher scheme families. At the start of the scheme, the Department received data from Edenred only on activity, such as the volume of orders for eCodes received from schools and processed. It did not receive data on performance – for example, how long Edenred was taking to process orders, or how long schools and families were waiting to access Edenred’s website to convert eCodes into vouchers. The Department did not monitor Edenred’s performance against a requirement in the contract that Edenred should answer 90% of calls within 30 seconds. Edenred itself did not start collecting data on the number of calls answered until 11 May 2020, by which point the volume of calls from schools and families was much lower than in the first weeks of the scheme. Recommendation: The Department should collect complete management information specified in contracts from the outset, monitor performance as well as activity, and use this information to manage contracts effectively.