Successful Buying for Schools

1. Successful Buying for Schools August 2012

2. Successful Buying for Schools • The challenges (what’s tricky; why) • The resources (what can help) • The top five contracts we need to know • The plan (what do I do differently)

3. The challenges?

4. The challenges? • In order for a school to function school buyers are required to be specialists in all areas of non-pay provision… • Photocopiers Outsourced Print • Outsourced catering Hygiene services • Outsourced cleaning Exam fees • Property and grounds maintenance Alarm testing • Transportation PAT testing • Energy (Gas, NHH, HH) Paper • Water costs Ink • Insurance Food • Stationery Legal services • Library and text books Waste management • Furniture Telecoms • IT (support, service, goods) Academic expenditure

5. The challenges? • Range of specialist areas • Legislation • Unpredictability • Determining what ‘value’ means • Valuing our own time • Feeling like a ‘small player’ • Only part of our role

6. What is public procurement? • Effective procurement can help reduce costs and mitigate the risks of contracting with suppliers. • When spending public funds its important to consider how we advertise our requirements and how we can ensure that we offer suitable suppliers the chance to tender for our requirements. • The three key principles • Fair • Open • Transparent

7. Legislation The majority of school funding comes from government, therefore schools are required to procure goods and services in line with European legislation. What does this mean? If a school wants to purchase a service and the estimated contract value is over £173k for the majority of cases OJEU regulations will apply and for tenders under this limit quotes or formal competitions should be run. What’s OJEU? OJEU is the Official Journal of the European Union, a place where all contracts over certain thresholds should be published to encourage cross boarder trade between European countries. Due to statutory process it will take a minimum of 4 months to run a compliant OJEU tender, considering the time frame and the risks of running compliant OJEUs in practice this is extremely difficult for schools to undertake. Is there another way to run compliant tendering, get great value and speed up this process?

8. Free tool that school buyers use to obtain quotes from supplies • Through competing our requirements we drive down the cost of the commodity from our school supply base • The system is fully auditable, print off the evidence of competition when you need it • Great for saving time, most suppliers respond to your request within an hour

11. Interactive whiteboard

14. Find it at www.tesbuywire.com

15. Buying Organisations (PSBOS)

16. Buying Organisations (PSBOS)

17. What contracts can Pro 5 help me with? Waste Management Catering hardware Energy Outsourced Catering Photocopiers PAT Testing IT Services Food IT commodities

18. Why use PSBOs? • Use the aggregated demand of other government departments • Fully compliant with European law • Easy and quick to call off • Central place for school purchasing requirements • Strong customer facing terms and conditions

19. What is a framework? Complete OJEU for framework Government agency Aggregate Purchasing demand Schools Police Fire service NHS Prison

20. Example of PSBO contract

21. Find it at www.pro5.org www.tesfoundation.com

23. Guidance and documentation In TES Foundation • Over 50 resources directly related to school purchasing including; • Energy • Outsourced catering • MFDs • Grounds maintenance • Templates of procurement documents including; • Terms and conditions • Invitations to tender • Terminations notices • Hints and tips when you need them

24. Example of Guidance documentation provided by TES Foundation

25. Broadband Harnessing technology grant The harnessing technology grant provided to schools by central government is now no longer available, this subsidy has been re-routed to help fund the introduction of superfast broadband infrastructure (FTTC) Funding Some schools forums are picking up this funding gap, however some are not and this funding model isn't sustainable in the long term. Costs Schools are now or will soon be picking up the entire cost of broadband and related services such as VLE, VOIP, remote working and virus software. This cost could see schools paying up to £15k for a primary or £45k for a secondary per year. What’s the alternative? As the role out of FTTC takes place at your local telephone exchange you can use this to help drive down costs, and in some cases receive a faster service. How long does it take? Allow 3 months to terminate and arrange your new contract What’s the saving? Around 50% if your schools forum don’t currently subsidise your broadband provision

26. MFDs (Photocopiers) Buying photocopiers can often be a complicated matter. There are lots of different machines to choose from and a lot of ways to fund them. After you’ve waded through all the options and signed the paperwork it can be hard to know if you’ve really got a good deal. What’s the difference between a finance and operating lease? What’s a rollover agreement? What’s a total volume contract? Cost per click benchmark on maintenance agreement Developer click and overcharges What should be included in the maintenance agreement? Preventative maintenance Re-active maintenance (all parts and labour) All toner delivered to your school peripheral equipment such as staples Everything but paper

27. MFDs (Photocopiers) • Value for money check list • If you have a lease is it for more than 3 years? • If you have a lease do you know if it’s an operating or finance lease? • Have previous leases been ‘rolled up’ in to your current one? • If you have a maintenance agreement do you pay more than 0.45 pence for a mono print and 4.5 pence for a colour print? • Was the photocopier ‘free’ if you bought a set amount of toner from the supplier? • If you have a maintenance agreement do you pay for anything other than paper? • Do you pay additional costs for other services such as remote diagnostics? • Did your supplier take your printing budget and present a small saving i.e. by taking the service you will save £1k a year.

28. Energy • To get the best prices collect your actual usage for gas and electricity for the last year, this is important as you will get the best deals if suppliers know your volumes. • There’s risk of penalty if you estimate volumes and don’t hit limits (esp gas) • You may want to use a broker to help with the tendering this will save you time but keep an eye on their changes and ask what rebate they get from the suppliers • When going out to market make sure the suppliers install AMR meters, this will save you money in your contract.

29. Outsourced catering • Consider your requirement carefully: consult within school; eg healthy eating, food miles, supporting local farming, meals that represent ethnic mix of your school, what do you want to achieve? • Is in-house provision impossible? Can in-house provision generate income for the school? • If outsourcing: • Ask at least 3 suppliers to quote for this provision, submissions will vary wildly • Try to leave around 3 months to complete the exercise (TUPE will apply to catering staff) • Use Government framework to procure this requirement, the total contract value may exceed OJEU limits, the terms and conditions will be customer facing. • Review the performance of the supplier at least every 3 months in a structured meeting. • In the tender process make sure you ask for and receive a full catering budget from the supplier so they can be managed to this

30. Where to go! www.tesbuywire.com www.pro5.org www.tesfoundation.com

31. The Plan