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day lives back in March, the government put in place some emergency procurement rules and changes. These changes meant that schools could extend current contracts they were in at the time, rather than having to do a new procurement. We helped a lot of customers do that and get the best value. We also helped schools emergency award their contracts, whereas previously a school would have to do the full tender process to award. If it was related to COVID-19, you could bypass the standard regulations. This was used for schools to get some emergency deep cleans done or purchase essential cleaning equipment. What if a customer is completely new to procurement, doesn’t understand the procurement jargon? Can you help? Some of the frameworks that customers see in the public sector seem very complicated. When we carried out our research, we found that some of the terminology used in public sector procurement is quite complex and this was reflected in our framework offering that was predominantly used by our local authority customers. So, we’ve tailored our Contract for Schools offering to strip back the jargon, make
it easy and to understand, and the team will hand hold customers every step of the way. We’ve changed the titles of our contracts, reviewed our user guides and created a standardised template for each stage of a school’s procurement project. Procurement in general can be quite daunting as it encompasses a huge array of things. The team can help you with underperforming suppliers; if you’re paying too much money for something; or if the price of a service has gone up. The team can also help if your contracts need renewing; knowing where to start if you’re completely new to procurement; and pulling together templates and checklists. YPO also helps with credit checks and supplier insurance review; checking your supplier’s third-party contractors; advertising your procurement for you; holding supplier opening days; and working with you to answer any clarifications a tendering supplier may have. The team can also evaluate tenders with you or on your behalf, or leave it completely to you. We’d ask those high-level questions like how big is your premises? How many times will you need it cleaning? Who is your current supplier? Are they private or public sector or through
your local authority? How many staff members do you have on-site, how many pupils? Our team have a checklist of essential criteria and once we’ve got your background information, we’ll pull together some recommendations and guidance to see how we can help you, and how much support you need. We’ve also created templates we can give to customers so we can support you through the journey. So with setting up a CCTV contract, for example, you’ll need to know the point of entry within the building, the quality of camera you’re needing, your broadband speed to link the CCTV equipment up to. We pull together all the details to help us paint a picture of what’s required. Another thing we can do is supplier management. So over the life of the contract, we can help support you through that. We don’t just leave you to it once you’ve set up your contract. We’ve got a sales team that can help, they can be on-site or have regular zoom meetings, they can help stabilise that new supplier, ensure that they’ve got a physical presence on the ground. We can do that full end to end support. A customer might be someone who’s already been involved in procurement before that can hit the ground running, or maybe it’s somebody that requires more handholding. Whatever your procurement needs, we’re here to help! Does YPO have any DfE recommended frameworks? We have a few including our Gas and Electricity offering as well as Photocopiers and Printers. We also have our Home to School App, which helps parents monitor their children’s journeys on school buses. Featuring alerts and automated messages, the app uses realtime tracking to notify schools and parents of delays, route changes and absences. This has also been an approved route to market by the DfE during the COVID-19 pandemic. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.ypo.co.uk/contractsforschools
Issue 26.1 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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