Our Services
Single School Tender Service
Don’t have enough time? Worried about compliance? Or not sure where to start with outsourcing? We can run the entire process for you; from specification to evaluation and contract award, saving you time and money.
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Multi-Academy Trust Tender Service
Need to review the procurement strategy across your group of schools? Need to consolidate individual school contracts within a centralised Trust contract? Our experience can help you rationalise common functions and deliver central contracts saving hundreds of thousands.
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School Cluster Tender Service
If your Local Authority catering or ICT service is closing, or your Service Level Agreement is not providing value or quality, we can procure new services for your localised cluster to collaborate on, saving money whilst achieving a tailored service.
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Procurement Back Office Service
Want to have a dedicated team of experts to advise on, and deliver your procurement strategy? We provide MATs and Local Authorities with a back-office procurement function. You simply outsource all your customer’s procurement requirements to us, and we’ll work in partnership to deliver them.
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Procurement Timetable
Single School Tender Service
We are here as your procurement partner to help you save money through compliant tendering.
Our procurement specialists will help you to define your exact requirements, put a specification together for your approval and run the entire tendering process for you. We are on hand to provide expert advice throughout the tender and once the contract is up and running.
- Working for primary and secondary schools
- Savings through competitive tendering
- End-to-end procurement service
- Mobilisation and annual contract KPI reviews
Coopers School
Schools’ Buying Club managed the tender process for the catering services at this secondary school in Chislehurst.
The school included a number of service points around the site, including a dedicated sixth form offering. Through the resulting contract, the school receives a guaranteed income of £100k over 3 years, in addition to a £49k investment in the catering facilities.
‘The result that Schools’ Buying Club helped us achieve is very much appreciated. We would not hesitate to recommend their service.’
Rob Carling, Finance Director, Coopers School
Multi-Academy Trust Tender Service
Schools’ Buying Club has managed dozens of centralised contract procurements for MATs, creating efficiencies for the Trust and achieving savings for their academies.
Regardless of the size of your MAT, we will work with you to develop a procurement plan to ensure each academy receives the tailored services that it needs, whilst benefitting from collaboration to secure the keenest pricing from the supply market. We run open tenders to encourage the broadest range of suppliers to compete on contract terms and conditions that protect trusts.
- New converter academies can join the MAT contract when they are ready
- Savings through economies of scale within centralised contracts
- End-to-end procurement service
- Mobilisation and annual contract KPI reviews
Kent Catholic Schools’ Partnership
Schools’ Buying Club successfully managed the tender process for catering, cleaning, internal and external audit and statutory compliance on behalf of KCSP. Here’s what they had to say:
‘When the Kent Catholic Schools’ Partnership faced the daunting task of re-tendering operations across its academies, it could have found no better partner than the Schools’ Buying Club. Steering us through a complex tendering process and helping us to deliver substantial financial savings and an improved service for our Children and Young People. To anyone in a similar position, I would highly recommend the Schools’ Buying Club.’
Mark Harris, Finance Director, Kent Catholic Schools’ Partnership
School Cluster Tender Service
Schools’ Buying Club has helped many informal clusters of schools come together to achieve significant savings by collaborating to procure their services.
Some local groups of schools arrange themselves into a buying consortium and we advise and run procurements on their behalf. Other clusters of schools come together because their local authority service may be stopping, or their SLAs offer no opportunity to reduce cost or improve services. We have managed collaborative tenders for such clusters, realising value for money solutions protected by robust contract terms and conditions.
- Bespoke step-by-step procurement process
- Partnering with maintained schools to help them achieve best value and quality
- Savings through competitive tenders and collaborative contracts
- Mobilisation and annual contract KPI reviews
Schools’ Buying Club has helped a number of informal clusters aggregate their purchasing power; most recently in Sandwell and in Tower Hamlets where we assisted the schools in outsourcing their catering provision. By choosing us they received a higher quality food provision, meal price and support through the OJEU process.
Procurement Back Office Service
A number of MATs and LA traded service organisations have turned to Schools’ Buying Club to effectively outsource their back-office procurement service.
We provide dedicated support to develop buying strategies and deliver outsourced service procurements at no direct cost. We prepare a buying plan which schedules the short to mid-term procurement priorities, mapped to the most efficient timescales for their academies to participate in, focused on the key categories of cleaning, catering, ICT and professional services. We also provide the Procurement Back Office service for local authorities so that they can continue to support schools’ buying needs without the cost of running an in-house unit.
- Buying strategy and procurement delivery
- No direct cost to MAT or Local Authority
- End-to-end procurement management through our compliant portal
- Mobilisation and annual contract KPI reviews
Chiltern Learning Trust
Schools’ Buying Club successfully managed the tender process for catering, cleaning and managed ICT services on behalf of Chiltern Learning Trust. Here’s what they had to say:
“The support given by Schools’ Buying Club felt like having an extended procurement team within the Trust, the officers were excellent, communicative, always available to provide advice and guidance, informed and understanding of our context and needs. Schools’ Buying Club has now supported us with Cleaning, Catering and ICT managed service tenders and I would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending them to other Trusts, a truly excellent service.”
Rob Parsons, COO, Chiltern Learning Trust
It couldn’t be simpler!
- Contact us and share your requirements and current service data
- We will devise the procurement strategy and assess the potential savings
- Sign a Letter of Agreement, and we’ll do the rest!
If this is of interest, please contact us!
T: 0845 257 7050
E: contact@schoolsbuyingclub.com
W: schoolsbuyingclub.com
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