Written question asked by Lindsay Hoyle (Labour) on Thursday, 2 July 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 6 July 2009. It was answered by Diana Johnson (Labour) on Thursday, 9 July 2009 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Schools: Procurement

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families if he will make an assessment of the merits of encouraging schools which are in the same area to use joint procurement processes for contracts for provision of support staff and facilities.

Answer: In answer to this question; where a joint approach to procurement (or collaboration) is adopted, the benefits typically seen are:"Improved value for money;""More reliable quality of supply; and""Better quality of service."These benefits are achieved by aggregating the demand for goods and services across a number schools and offering that increased volume to a larger pool of suppliers via structured competition.The use of procurement collaboration to achieve improved value for money, quality and reliability of supply is a key Government initiative. This is demonstrated by the importance placed on the Office of Government Commerce's (OGC's) collaborative agenda.Where this approach is adopted to a category of spend, for example support staff or facilities, an assessment of the specific merits to be achieved should be undertaken prior to undertaking the work (i.e. a business case is developed) and the subsequent measurement of the merits/benefits which should be recorded and reported as appropriate.The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) currently encourages schools to make use of contracts and frameworks that have been competed in the market place across a range of products and services. Where arrangements for specific categories of spend have not been addressed by DCSF, a school will be directed to an appropriate collaborative contract or framework which may be owned by the local authority, OGC or some other public body.

Secondary information