School business management toolkit
The Key for School Leaders | NASBM
Procurement: good practice
and guidance
The procurement cycle
The guidance also notes:
The Department for Education (DfE) has published guidance on
procurement for all schools in England. Page 7 explains that the
procurement cycle has three main stages:
• Planning
• Purchasing
• Managing a contract
Value for money is not always about the lowest price. It’s about
getting the right balance between quality and cost. Think about
how you will measure these when you specify and evaluate
your purchase.
Purchasing
The process for buying will depend on how much the contract is
worth and what your LA’s procurement thresholds are. On page 9
of its guidance, the DfE says that typical thresholds are as follows:
Here, we look at each of these stages in more detail.
Link on our website
• Less than £10,000 is a low-value purchase
Effective buying for your school, GOV.UK – DfE
(Adobe pdf file)
• £10,000 to £40,000 is a medium-value purchase
Planning
The guidance says on page 7 that because budgets are tight,
schools should [