Commercial Services Group delivers an extensive range of products and services to customers in education, local government, housing and health. But across our 33 businesses we have one clear vision: to create value and impact for every customer, every day. We do that by working collaboratively and commercially. This in turn drives innovation and service excellence.
Find out more about our work in education and across other sectors at: commercialservices.org.uk
Education is where it all started for Commercial Services Group, as the supplies division to local authorities. Today, we’re trusted by thousands of customers across the entire education sector, empowering educators at every level with solutions covering people and talent, specialist children and education services, energy and environment, IT systems and procurement, and legal services.
Whether we’re supplying schools and academies with essential equipment, supporting school improvement initiatives, helping leadership teams meet net zero targets, or designing innovative procurement frameworks,
we have the right expertise and breadth of experience to deliver sustained success and measurable impact.
As the UK’s largest local authority owned, privately run business, we offer the best of both worlds – a clear focus on commercial expertise and leading-edge thinking, alongside a deep commitment to transparency, compliance and social value.
Our profits provide sizeable returns to the public purse but that’s just one part of our story. Ultimately, everything we do creates better places for people to live, learn and thrive.
Outdoor learning equipment by Landscapes for Learning
Working together to improve outcomes for learners
Schools and colleges are facing one of the most challenging financial environments in recent memory. Across the country, leaders are balancing rising costs with the imperative to maintain high standards of education, inclusion, and wellbeing. Every decision must stretch resources further while meeting the diverse needs of learners. Against this backdrop, collaboration, innovation, and strategic support are more important than ever.
Policy changes present many challenges for UK education. We see this every day, working with school leaders and teams from pre-school upwards, as they strive to deliver improvements in a rapidly evolving and often under-resourced environment. But amongst our community of educators, there’s also a shared drive and passion for making the most of the opportunities that policy change brings to raise standards.
There is now a broad consensus that high quality education is synonymous with equality and inclusion, and essential to raising standards and driving better outcomes for children, improving their employability and life chances.
The move to local devolution and reform is pushing this agenda. As local areas gain more control, the ability to influence and shape education outcomes to better reflect regional economic needs becomes a key focus. A shift that offers us the chance to tackle regional disparities in educational outcomes – especially important in under represented or economically disadvantaged areas where access to high-quality education is limited.
It brings an exciting opportunity to tailor post-16 education to meet the specific economic demands of each region, filling local skills gaps and ultimately driving regional economies. Aligning vocational pathways with future industry needs – such as green jobs, digital and tech skills – is also vital if we are to create more equality and improve outcomes.
Part of this is also a much-needed, renewed focus on SEND provision, which is driving a range of initiatives around finding ways to improve outcomes for children with SEND. Schools are looking at how they can support early years intervention, devising strategies for flexible curricula that cater to diverse learning needs, and exploring how mainstream settings can ensure students with SEND thrive alongside their peers.
Clearly, improving the quality of teaching, and the wellbeing of teachers, will play a key role when it comes to raising standards, inclusivity and outcomes. Strategic workforce planning can help leaders identify gaps and present new ideas for recruitment drives and campaigns to attract diverse and high-quality teaching candidates. Investing in technology to reduce administrative burden and training to instil confidence can ease workload and stress. Access to mental health support, improved mentoring, career development and employee recognition can all increase wellbeing and retention.
Working together will be crucial. Continued educational and local government reform could empower schools, local businesses and community groups to form deeper partnerships rooted in local priorities. While academies will remain part of the system, proposed reforms may encourage stronger collaboration – within and across trusts, and between schools and local industry. The emphasis on local authority oversight and more consistent standards could pave the way for more meaningful, place-based relationships that serve regional needs.
Commercial Services Group has worked with educators throughout the UK to equip their schools with what they need to adapt to changing policy priorities. Our teams of experts are advising on innovative SEND initiatives and supporting them with specialist resources. We are helping leaders maximise value though smart procurement and energy savings. Our recruitment planning and platform is helping schools build strong, stable teams, whilst our practical training tools and resources help create inclusive cultures in schools and academies where all pupils and staff can thrive.
Our goal is your goal – to find solutions that have a positive impact on standards in all educational settings, improving outcomes for teachers and learners.
Education services
We deliver a range of services and solutions all aimed at helping you deliver high-quality education for your community of learners –from preschool to college.
Whether it’s providing secure IT systems, designing flexible procurement frameworks, or helping you make sure your people are at the top of their professional game, our goal is to create solutions that make a measurable difference. We also deliver specialised legal services covering employment law and child protection. Our teams work closely with you, always supporting your goals. Our services are delivered by experts across four companies –The Education People, Invicta Law, EIS and Procurement Services.
We are a specialist training and professional development provider, dedicated to equipping educators of all levels for working in today’s ever-evolving education sector.
We work closely with school teams – from early years to post-16 and beyond – to build confidence and raise standards across all educational settings. Our wide-ranging services include professional development, consultancy, school improvement support, SEND support, conferences and comprehensive training resources. Whether you’re an early years teacher, secondary school head or newly appointed governor we have the resources and training to help you transform outcomes and enrich every learner’s journey.
With deep understanding and distinctive expertise, gathered over many years working alongside educators across local authorities, schools, colleges and multi-academy trusts, we deliver solutions that make a measurable difference.
theeducationpeople.org
Invicta Law provides specialised legal services tailored to meet the needs of the education sector. With extensive experience in child protection, employment and data protection compliance, we deliver practical, cost-effective advice and training to ensure you’re always one step ahead.
Our areas of expertise for the education sector include support for employment tribunal cases, guiding you from early conciliation to hearings. We offer workplace training to reduce the risk of tribunal claims, policy reviews to ensure legislative compliance, specialist safeguarding training for supporting children in care, and GDPR training to enhance data protection awareness and meet legal obligations across the sector.
Our team combines a commitment to public service with a pragmatic, client-centred approach. We understand the unique challenges you face and are dedicated to providing timely, expert legal solutions that ensure safety, compliance and peace of mind.
invicta.law
We keep procurement simple, providing schools with compliant routes to purchase products and services from local, national and global suppliers with complete peace of mind.
Across our Procurement Services brands, we offer frameworks, tendering and contract management, leasing options, multi-functional device (MFD) account management and vehicle solutions to suit all requirements.
Procurement Services Frameworks has a market leading portfolio, giving your school access to suppliers who can cover everything you need. This includes education management systems, playground and sports equipment, IT hardware and software, telephony systems, cleaning services and even your school minibus – with a number of our frameworks being DfE approved.
And over in Procurement Services Digital, our MFD Account Managers can help you throughout the whole process of managing your multi-functional device contracts, offering expert advice, quick response times and a trusted service.
In total we offer compliant, innovative solutions that deliver better outcomes for your school environment – helping you focus on what really matters for your school.
procurementservices.co.uk
WWW.EIS.CO.UK
EIS delivers specialist digital and IT services tailored for the education sector. We help schools and trusts simplify IT, stay secure, and get the most from their technology. With over 40 years’ experience, we offer practical, cost-effective solutions that empower staff and drive better learning outcomes.
We offer a comprehensive range of IT solutions for schools, including fully managed IT services for devices, networks, and Microsoft 365 – delivered by our accredited service desk and on-site technicians. We provide cyber security services, MIS support and training, GDPR services, wireless and cloud infrastructure, device provision, project management and more. Together, these services help schools to run securely, efficiently, and in line with best practices.
Our friendly, professional team of technical experts delivers high-quality support and excellent value. We’re small enough to know you personally, but large enough to meet all your IT needs.
eis.co.uk
Energy & environment
Maximising the green spaces and grounds surrounding our schools and colleges is critical to delivering enriched educational experiences. Improving energy efficiency is also vital to running leading-edge schools and colleges. We help our customers do both – with a clear focus on value and sustainability.
We provide a range of energy procurement services and net zero initiatives to the education sector, helping customers reduce energy costs, improve efficiency and connect to sustainable solutions.
Our landscape services specialise in planning, developing and maintaining school grounds and sports fields. We have decades of experience, working together with schools to care for and optimise their environment to support learning goals.
Managing energy in schools has never been more challenging – tight budgets, volatile markets, and growing sustainability demands can make it feel overwhelming. That’s where LASER comes in. With over 30 years of experience, we’ve been helping 5,000 schools and academies across the UK reduce costs, improve efficiency, and make sustainability simple.
Our flexible procurement solutions protect your budget from market spikes, securing competitive prices while reducing administrative burdens. With our fully managed service, we handle supplier queries, validate invoices, and provide dedicated support. Beyond procurement, we offer cost-saving solutions like LED lighting and rooftop solar. Schools we’ve worked with have reduced lighting usage by up to 70% and saved over £10 million in electricity.
Let’s work together to build a smarter, greener future for your school.
laserenergy.org.uk
Landscape Services is a specialist provider of outdoor maintenance and grounds management services throughout the South East. We support our customers in many ways, tackling everything from grounds maintenance and hard or soft landscaping, through to safety inspections, arboriculture and pest control.
We have worked within the education arena for as long as we have been in business, offering a 360º service tailored to work around the school calendar without impacting students or staff. We manage and maintain outdoor sports facilities, including sports field aeration, renovation, line marking and mowing.
Our staff and partners are experienced and trained in soil science and can develop bespoke maintenance packages for your open space to offer you greener, lusher and healthier grounds. We also have qualified arborists who can carry out emergency tree work and tree inspections, play and gym equipment inspectors and an experienced pest control team for additional support.
landscapeservices.co.uk
Human resources & people
We understand the challenges around recruiting, retaining and managing the people that are on your frontline, from teaching staff to school management teams, across all educational settings.
We help schools and academies find the best people with the right skills from across the UK for your specific establishment, building your brand awareness nationwide. More locally, we operate Kent-Teach – the leading recruitment platform for Kent schools, colleges and nurseries.
As well as recruitment support, many schools, academies, multi-academy trusts and colleges rely on us to help create better workplaces – improving staff retention. Through HR Connect, Employment Check and Staff Care Services we provide payroll, pension, HR advisory and administration services, DBS checking and support with staff health and wellbeing.
HR Connect helps to create better education workplaces – providing HR advisory, strategy, payroll, pension and HR administration services.
With more than 25 years at the forefront of human resources and people services, our team is trusted by over 1,000 customers nationwide, including schools, academies and multiacademy trusts. We put your people first – we’re fully accredited, compliant and deliver award-winning levels of service, and are experts in finding practical and pragmatic solutions. Our HR Specialists work closely with managers and senior leaders to understand your organisation’s objectives and identify the appropriate people management solutions.
Through our family of brands – HR Connect, Prospects Payroll, Employment Check and Staff Care Services, we can take care of your entire human resources function, so you can focus on the smooth running of your school.
hrconnect.org.uk
We are one of only eight approved DBS eBrokers operating across the UK, delivering a fully hosted and compliant online DBS checking solution. Our comprehensive pre-employment check services include Basic, Standard and Enhanced DBS Checks, Right to Work, Digital ID, Reference and Social Media Checks.
With EmploymentCheck, you can be confident that the people you hire are qualified to begin their on-boarding with you. We deliver over 400,000 checks every year, giving more than 34,000 organisations peace of mind when it comes to new joiners. Our team is focused on giving you a friendly and responsive service and has decades of experience. We also help train your staff in using our DBS services and processes to always ensure a thorough and consistent approach to employee background checks and customer safety.
education.employmentcheck.org.uk
We provide staff health and wellbeing solutions through an experienced team of clinicians, consultants, counsellors, and trainers. Our health and wellbeing services encourage both personal growth and enjoyment in the workplace. We partner with you to create and deliver an insight driven employee health and wellbeing strategy based on the unique needs of your organisation.
By supplying and maintaining a tailored staff wellbeing strategy, we can provide valuable data and insight that allows you to improve employee engagement, retain your best talent, and lower absence costs. Our services also include occupational health, health surveillance and a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme, Support Line, for effective counselling and talking therapy.
hrconnect.org.uk/staff-care-services
With over 3 million visits to our website each year and over 43,000 applications, Kent-Teach is the leading recruitment platform for Kent schools, colleges and nurseries. We aim to ensure that the children and young people of Kent get the best start in life by supporting the recruitment of quality teachers.
We help educators find the best people for their workplaces. Our platform allows us to advertise your vacancies across the UK, broadening the talent pool. We’re constantly building our brand awareness through social media, targeted content, networking and nationwide campaigns to drive traffic to our website. We’re also a resource hub, sharing our knowledge, expertise and insights into teaching as a career, teaching opportunities and advice on recruitment.
At Kent-Teach, we’re committed to delivering a cost-effective solution to all your recruitment needs, helping you deliver high-quality education to your community of learners.
kent-teach.com
Education products
Whatever equipment or supplies your school or college needs to thrive, we can supply it. Whether it’s the classroom, science lab, library, play area or sports field, we have a range of specialist supply companies, each focused on specific products.
At Commercial Services Group, we’ve built our supply business over many years to offer our customers a one-stop shop. If you use a Commercial Services Group company to supply crayons and craft materials, you can also use another of our specialists to kit out your library, supporting reading development. Need outdoor learning equipment, playground products or sports supplies? We can provide that too, helping you inspire movement and active lifestyles.
We’re committed to delivering value, saving you money across every sector. Our product supply companies include KCS Education, Landscapes for Learning, Gresswell, Maudesport, Technology Supplies and Timstar.
As one of the largest resources suppliers to the UK education sector, we supply nurseries and schools with essential equipment, from a catalogue of over 26,000 products.
From pencils and exercise books to complete turnkey solutions for new school builds, including furniture fit-out and play equipment, we’re renowned for our award-winning customer service, careful delivery and deep sector knowledge.
We work closely with practitioners and teachers to develop ideas, sourcing new products as needed from our compliant supplier base. We also supply a wide range of specialist resources for children with special educational needs. We’ve built long-standing partnerships with many of our customers – including larger multi academy trusts – offering bespoke services based on a deep understanding of their needs, including time saving procurement punchout solutions. Our aim is to work with you to create inspiring spaces –helping teachers teach and learners learn.
kcs.co.uk
We are dedicated to creating unique, accessible and long-lasting outdoor children’s learning equipment for primary schools, nurseries and day-care centres, across the UK and Ireland.
Active, sensory play is integral to children’s learning and development, and we believe every child should have access to quality outdoor learning spaces. That’s why we’re committed to the design, construction and installation of unique, durable and affordable wooden play equipment. From mud kitchens and construction toys to bug hotels and sandpits, all our products are carefully designed, often in consultation with practicing educators and early years consultants. We also design and build dens, playhouses and outdoor classrooms, and offer a bespoke design service.
We’re proud of the relationships we’ve built with teachers and caregivers and the quality of our products. All our equipment complies with industry standards and we ensure our range evolves in line with inspectorate standards. landscapes4learning.com
Akira workshop equipment by Technology Supplies (TSL)
Gresswell is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of specialist equipment and resources for libraries. We partner with schools, colleges and universities providing solutions that help them run their libraries efficiently and serve their communities effectively.
Our carefully curated range of equipment and supplies is designed to support academic literacy, creative learning and reading development for students and teachers.
With over 80 years’ experience in the sector, we’ve built an extensive range of specialist products, from book care and covers to shelving and display furniture and collection management to book circulation and returns. Beyond supplies, we also provide user-centred design and installation services. Our award-winning design team create future-proof, flexible environments, including dedicated spaces for primary and teen readers and inclusive sensory spaces. gresswell.co.uk
We are a key supplier of sports equipment to schools across the UK. Our vast range of physical education and playground products is designed to inspire movement and support healthy, active lifestyles.
From athletics to dodgeball, basketball to hockey, football to volleyball or netball to tennis, we supply kit for every sport from A-Z, no matter how niche or specialist. If your school has a particular sport on its curriculum, we can provide the resources you need, including health & fitness, play equipment, and wet and dry poolside essentials for aquatic activities.
We’re dedicated to getting children active and improving their wellbeing by working with schools to deliver quality equipment and resources.
maudesport.co.uk
Reading space equipment by Gresswell
Technology Supplies (TSL) provides schools and colleges with machinery and equipment for design and technology. We are one of the UK’s leading specialist suppliers, designing innovative solutions and resources that inspire students in STEAM, design and technology and engineering.
We believe that fostering critical thinking, communication and collaboration is essential in education, helping students tackle today’s global challenges and build a sustainable future.
Our unrivalled range of approved, specialist equipment is carefully curated to meet the needs of today’s learning environments, and is tailored to the secondary and further education curriculum. We can supply resources for every space, from product design to CAD/CAM, engineering to robotics and fabrication to art and graphics. We also offer a comprehensive design, installation and maintenance service to create cutting-edge, future-ready, flexible teaching environments that stand the test of time.
Whether it’s supplies, refurbishments or a bespoke STEAM teaching space, we’re committed to empowering educators to inspire the next generation of innovators. technologysupplies.co.uk
Timstar is one of the UK’s leading equipment, chemical and resource suppliers for Biology, Chemistry and Physics education. Our curriculum-relevant specialist solutions and resources stimulate curiosity and interest – supporting and engaging students to question, investigate and explore, developing transferable skills and knowledge.
Our range of approved science equipment for GCSE and A Level is curated specifically for schools and colleges.
We have an extensive range of specialist school science equipment, covering biology, chemistry, physics, environmental science, anatomy, ecology, botany, microbiology, and biochemistry. We also provide a design and installation service for future-proof flexible and practical laboratory and prep room environments.
We believe that the development of critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills in education is vitally important to solve today’s global challenges and create a sustainable future. Working with science educators, our aim is to help shape and inspire the scientists of tomorrow.
timstar.co.uk
Co-op Academy science equipment by Timstar
KCS now integrated with IRIS Financials
KCS are a profit with a purpose organisation, returning millions of pounds to the community each year.
Why work with us?
• Shopping with us is easy – place and approve orders from KCS directly in your IRIS Financials system
• Dedicated Business Development Manager – offering a service tailored to your trust. Our professional team can produce insights and reporting as well as bespoke solutions such as consolidated invoicing
• Huge product range – 22,000 products to choose from, including office essentials, classroom stationery, exercise books, facilities and furniture
• Scheduled orders – never run out of those school essentials again; schedule your orders to arrive just when you need them
• Turnkey project solutions – from classroom kit-outs to entire new-builds and refurbishments, both indoors and out, we’ll help manage the entire project
• FREE next day delivery, when you order by midday*
