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So in most of our contracts it has the usual 'any other reasonable request made by your line manager or the head teacher' or similar clause. Now, what is 'reasonable' and what isn't? For example, if someone were asked to go and wait at a gate, every morning, for a bus to collect something to take to another school, would this be 'reasonable'? (With no short time scale or anything, just an extra task) Or is it how I think it is, a reasonable request would be something like filling in for someone who is off ill for a day and the school is short staffed? Or doing the waiting for a bus thing for one day or some short-term period of time? Surely 'reasonable request' doesn't mean 'anything which your boss says'? It does appear that the latter is what some managers seem to think it means...

I have considerable experience leading the procurement function of a local authority - with a focus on education. Just wanted to add some points of clarification following some recent threads I saw: It is true what some authors have said about moving from server-based software to cloud-based software not being a simple 'upgrade' or contract variation. This becomes a material change to the product purchased by the school(s) and should be the subject of a new procurement. This could be via a framework as opposed to you undertaking an exercise yourselves When thinking about your procurement strategy for MIS, you mustn't define MIS as a bronze (simple, low value, low risk) contract. You can search for the 'Contract Tiering Tool' from the Knowledge Hub for help with defining gold, silver, bronze contracts. This will have a knock-on effect on how you undertake the financial assessment of bidders and suppliers. And it should mean that you will not rely purely on delphi scores from credit referencing agencies and you should undertake a full assessment. You can also search the Cabinet Office's assessing the economic and financial standing of suppliers for a guide on how to do the financial assessment. If you do not have the in-house expertise to do this, you can buy-in support. You assign a weighting to price. This normally depends on your assessment of how 'standardised' the good is - the more standardised the good (say taxi services, or waste collection) the heavier weighting you would assign to price. The less standardised (say alternative provision for pupils at risk of exclusion) the heavier weighting you would apply to quality. You can find advice online about how to decide price/quality ratios on government websites and from legal firms experienced in public services. If you see 2-3 recent tenders for MIS's and they have applied consistent price/quality ratios, it's probably safe to assume it has been well thought through Some frameworks will have undertaken the financial assessment of suppliers, but some will not have, so you need to check the particulars of the framework you're considering. An obvious point - but you need to be very transparent and very fair. Don't put yourself in a position where you could subconsciously favour a particular supplier. Or a position where you leave yourself open to challenge from unsuccessful suppliers. For example, if you are part of a group of schools, and a prospective bidder is already delivering in some of your schools so they have access to staff, make sure they do not receive any more information about the upcoming tender than other prospective bidders. Try not to accept any freebies from suppliers and don't allow relationships with contract managers to become more than just professional (barbecues, lunches, holidays - it happens more than you would think!) I'm happy to try to clarify any further procurement queries.

Hi, Not sure if this is the correct forum but couldnt find a one that fit. I have been asked to write up a support contract for our feeder schools to provide them with "part-time" support and i wondered if any other schools have this in place already. The schools involve already recieve it from county but feel there not gettign value for money so as we have helped them out in times of emergency and find us easier to work with. I am currently writing the things we will cover i.e. hardware/software fault finding, installation and the like. Telephone support and emergency cover. Is there things i should put in..... Any advice will help...