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Buying for schools

From:
Department for Education
Published:
Updated:
, see all updates

  1. Contents

How to buy goods, works, or services for your school.

Following these guides will help schools to:

  • find deals that are available
  • get value for money
  • comply with EU procurement law

Check our deals for schools first to see if they can supply what you need.

  1. 1. Plan your procurement process How to plan what you need to buy for your school and decide which procurement process to use.
  2. 2. Write your specification How to prepare your procurement specification, describing the goods, works or services you need.
  3. 3a. Direct selection of a supplier from a framework How schools can buy goods, works or services from a framework that allows you to directly choose the best-value supplier for your requirements.
  4. 3b. Run a mini-competition between suppliers on a framework How schools can buy goods, works or services from a framework where all listed suppliers may bid for your requirements.
  5. 3c. Run your own procurement: lower-value tenders How schools can buy low- to medium-value goods, works or services by researching the relevant market and seeking a range of quotes from suppliers.
  6. 3d. Run your own procurement: high-value and EU tenders How schools can make high-value and EU-compliant purchases by advertising their contract and running their own competitive tender process between suppliers.
  7. 4. Managing your contract How to review supplier performance, renew or end the contract, and review your procurement process.
  8. 5. Useful resources Links to further information about procurement for schools, including training modules, templates and ICT guidance.
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