Procurement Best Practice

[andreaki_74]

Certain recent events have demonstrated how specifying and purchasing products for schools can be a minefield, particularly in the absence of specialist purchasing or supply chain expertise.

 

I’ve just started a LinkedIn group on the topic of school IT procurement that may be of interest – it aims to raise awareness of procurement best practice:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12863531/.

 

Hopefully it will help ensure you avoid some common pitfalls whilst adhering to the core principles of public procurement.

 

Please join and feel free to share your experience and views or pose questions to the community.

 

Thanks!

Andrew

[supportman]

It's important to try out all the products and demo them to the stakeholders in your school.

 

But, unless you are a large MAT I think its pretty easy to choose what is simply the best product for the school.

 

We certainly found all the prices and capabilities similar, it really came down to the look and feel of the product as well as the development speed and roadmap.

[PotNoodleTech]

The problem is that usually, no one in schools has the expertise or skillset to do capital procurement. We're not lawyers, solicitors or contract experts.

 

But that being said - purchasing one MIS for one school doesn't qualify as a capital procurement in my eyes so why are those type of rules suddenly being forced on schools for small purchases. (£10-20k a year is peanuts in the world of commercial procurement, let's face it I mean I bet we spend more than that having the lawns mowed).

 

Obviously trusts are a different ball game but then like an LEA they do/should have the financial capacity to employ or hire qualified legal personnel for this sort of thing.

[RKing]

I have been directed to Crown Commercial Service (CCS), they have a lot of advice around procurement.

https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/

 

But purchasing anything for education can be rather painful.