Buying for Schools

RPA members – if an incident were to happen, is your school cyber secure and are you covered?

Katy O’Connor, RPA Future Projects Strategy and Delivery Lead, 6 February 2023 - Advice and support

In April 2022 the department included cyber cover as part of its Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA). We are almost a year on and Katy O’Connor, RPA Future Projects Strategy and Delivery Lead thought it was a good time to check in and see if all members are taking full advantage of this vital cover.

Join a new training pilot to help you manage your contracts and maximise your budget

Charlene Pink, Innovation Lead, DfE, 24 January 2023 - Advice and support, Services, Uncategorized

Charlene Pink is an Innovation Lead at the Department for Education and is currently working on a project which aims to give those who buy for their school the knowledge, skills and confidence to do so as effectively as they can. In this blog post, Charlene highlights a new training pilot which launches in February 2023.

Buying energy and energy efficiency goods and services

Dan Baker, Schools Commercial Team Category Lead, 9 January 2023 - Services

In this blog post, Dan Baker, Schools Commercial Team Category Lead, gives an overview of the DfE support available to help you buy energy and energy efficiency goods and services for your school.

Teaching Vacancies: Putting money back into the classroom

Will Bourke, Outreach and Engagement Manager, Teaching Vacancies, 1 December 2022 - Services

Teaching Vacancies is the free national service for state schools in England to list teaching, leadership, and education support roles. Will Bourke provides an update on the work the team has been doing to reduce the admin and cost burden for trusts when advertising vacancies.

Keeping everyone safe and secure in school

Russ Bland, Head of crime, fire and health and safety resilience for the Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA), 14 November 2022 - Services

In this blog, Russ Bland, Head of crime, fire and health and safety resilience for the Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA), tells us about the targeted work that his team are doing to keep schools with particular risks as safe and secure as possible.

My experience of using the Get help buying for schools service

Kieren Done, School Business Manager at St Ambrose College, 26 October 2022 - Services

In this blog post, Kieren Done - School Business Manager at St Ambrose College, a grammar school in Altrincham, Manchester, shares his experience of using Get help buying for schools and how it could help you with your buying too.

YPO's Buildings in Use framework explained

Megan Grimshaw, Procurement Projects Delivery Lead at YPO, 11 October 2022 - Services

In this blog post, Megan Grimshaw, Procurement Projects Delivery Lead at YPO, highlights YPO’s Buildings in Use framework, which includes both catering and cleaning lots as well as much more. Megan will explain what the framework can offer, how it works, and how it can benefit schools. If you are looking for a catering service or want to outsource your cleaning, this could be the framework for you.

A new and improved framework for hiring supply teachers and other temporary staff

Tom Harper, Supply Teachers Category Manager at Crown Commercial Service, 26 September 2022 - Services

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has launched a new and improved version of its agency supply framework. Tom Harper is the Supply Teachers Category Manager at CCS. In this blog post, Tom will highlight the improvements to the framework and how you can access it.

It’s never too early to start planning when buying for your school

Peter McMullan, Senior Category Manager at the Crescent Purchasing Consortium (part of the CPL Group), 14 July 2022 - Advice and support

Peter looks at the importance of planning ahead when buying for your school and why you don’t necessarily need to wait for the school holidays to make big changes.

School Resource Management: building a stronger system

Cherise Heavey, Communications and User-Engagement Lead from the Schools Resource Management Team, 15 June 2022 - Services

We wanted to find out more about the DfE's new Schools Resource Management (SRM) strategy and what it means for schools, so we asked Rachael Davies and Shazia Fletcher, joint heads of the School Resource Management strategy team, to tell us about it.

Blog Buying for Schools

My experience of the risk protection arrangement (RPA) claims process when our school flooded.