The specialists and what they can offer

The DfE ‘Get help buying for schools’ service includes a team of procurement specialists that can save you time and money by offering free support when you’re buying any goods or services for your school.

Help for all procurements

Our specialists can:

• offer advice and guidance to make sure you’re buying compliantly at any point, even if your procurement process is already in progress
• review your documents to make sure they’re complete and compliant -– this includes advice on specification documents, tender documents and evaluation criteria
• support you on choosing or using a framework agreement for your procurement
• advise when you need to seek legal advice

Additional help for complex or high value procurements

Our specialists may offer to help run more complex or high value procurements. Some of the reasons they may offer to do this are:

• when contracts are long term or multi-year
• you’re buying for multiple schools
• the value is above the public contractsprocurement regulationsthreshold (PCR)for thresholdthe procurement being undertaken as set out in the The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the Procurement Act 2023
• the procurement requires inclusion of transferring personnel contracts under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations (TUPE)
• you’re new or not experienced in running these types of procurements
• there are problems with supply or prices change regularly, for example energy costs
• it’s challenging to find suppliers

Working with DfE to run a complex or high value procurement

You will need to work closely with your specialist to make sure that your procurement is a success.

This means that you’ll need to:

• gather information, for example, to create a specification
• complete tasks, such as checking documents for accuracy
• make decisions
• be available for meetings

A DfE specialist will advise you on what to gather or what you need to do at each stage of your procurement to be compliant. Read more about the different routes to buying.

Request help and support

Make a request for help, advice or support with your procurement by using the ‘Get help buying for schools’ service.

Start

We will respond by email within 25 working days once you submit a request.

We will usually stay in contact by email. Sometimes we may arrange a video call with you, for example if we want to talk with you about something complicated, or we want to discuss the help we can offer.

If you need us to communicate with you in another way, you can let us know when you first make a request for support.

How long the process takes

The time a procurement process takes varies depending on what you’re buying.

It typically takes 6 months to run a procurement but can be longer if tasks are not done on time, or if the procurement is complex or high value. For example, if you’re doing a procurement for multiple schools or if it requires a transfer of staff contracts. These types of complex procurements can take 12 months or longer.

When a DfE specialist gets in touch, they will advise you on how long your procurement can take.

Depending on the process that’s right for your school, they may give you a timeline to follow.

Other resources to help you buy

We offer other tools and resources such as:

• guidance on how to buy and buying routes
• ways to get support from other schools
• self-guided tools that you can use for your procurement

Read the Buying for schools guidance to see what we offer.

Get training on the Procurement Act 2023

The free DfE-approved transforming public sector procurement course:

• aims to give you the knowledge, skills and confidence to manage your procurement under the legislation
• is suitable for anyone within a school or multi-academy trust (MAT) responsible for running procurements, not just those in a specific commercial role

How to access the training

1. Go to Government Commercial College – schools should already be registered on the site or can register for an account.

2. Log in and select Find Learning at the top of page.

3. Search for transforming public procurement (TPP).

Register on the central digital platform

As part of the Procurement Act 2023 there will be a central digital platform to allow notices and documents to be published.

This platform will be an enhancement of the existing Find a Tender service. It will make it easier for suppliers to find and bid for contracts, and for you to meet your transparency responsibilities.

Use the instructions on Government Commercial College to register. Your request should be approved within 48 hours.

Find out more from the Update for schools and trusts on the Procurement Act 2023 – Buying for Schools blog post.