Guide / Choose your buying support
Choose the buying route that fits your independent school
Direct buying, an energy adviser, a group arrangement or an eligible framework can each be considered. Start with the school's status, capability and requirement, then explain the route chosen.
Start with the decision you actually face
For most ordinary fee-funded schools, the starting question is how to make a sound purchase under their own governance. It is not how to justify departing from an academy funding requirement. Separate three choices: the buying procedure the school must follow, the support it needs to run that procedure, and the eventual supply agreement. An adviser can help with the second without deciding the first or authorising the third.
Define the school's practical capacity. Who can assemble reliable data, compare charge structures, review terms, obtain approvals while offers are valid and manage the transfer? A route that appears inexpensive can consume significant staff time or leave material risks unexamined. Equally, an external service should have a defined purpose rather than being purchased because energy is unfamiliar.
Consider four practical routes
These are options to assess, not recommendations in order of merit. A TPI may work through a framework or buying group; using one does not establish that the school is buying outside a framework. Check the route behind the proposed offer, not just the provider's description of its service.
| Route | What it may offer | What the school still needs to establish |
|---|---|---|
| Direct to suppliers | School control of its market enquiries and supplier relationship. | Capability, supplier coverage, a common brief, complete offers and contract review. |
| An appointed TPI | Coordinated procurement support and any specifically commissioned continuing service. | Competence, coverage, full remuneration, conflicts, authority limits and deliverables. |
| Group or buying organisation | A coordinated portfolio or access to an organised buying service. | Eligibility, legal customers, purchasing policy, allocation, fees, joining and leaving terms. |
| An eligible framework | A pre-established purchasing structure where the school is entitled to use it. | Actual user eligibility, scope, term, call-off rules, available service and the resulting obligations. |
Check public-procurement status rather than relying on a label
The Procurement Act's contracting-authority definition uses statutory tests. For a public authority, Cabinet Office guidance uses the test of being wholly or mainly funded out of public funds, or subject to public-authority oversight, together with not operating on a commercial basis. Whether a body is called independent, charitable or private does not settle those tests. Record the actual structure and circumstances; seek appropriate advice if the answer is uncertain.
Take particular care with unusual public connections, changes in control and provision involving public funding. Being paid by a local authority to educate a pupil does not, without the necessary analysis, answer whether the school itself is a contracting authority for buying energy. The authority's placement procurement and the school's energy purchase are separate transactions.
If public-procurement obligations apply, establish the correct procedure, valuation, notices and approvals before inviting offers. A quotation exercise or TPI appointment cannot replace that work. If they do not apply, the school still follows its governing powers, internal buying policy, contractual commitments and other applicable law.
A framework is an eligibility question as well as a value question
Do not assume every DfE-approved deal or public-sector framework admits independent schools. Equally, do not assume that none does. Ask the framework or buying organisation to confirm the actual customer's eligibility in writing, identify the applicable user definition and explain the call-off procedure. Check the supplies, sites and service you need are within scope.
Where a school can use the arrangement, examine the resulting offer as carefully as any other: complete delivered cost, pricing uncertainty, fees, consumption and site flexibility, term, exit and continuing service. Framework access is useful information about a route; it is not a guarantee that a particular agreement is best for this estate.
Make a private buying exercise fair and useful
Agree a proportionate process under the school's policy. Set the requirement and comparison method before asking the market, give participants the same versioned information, record clarifications and compare offers on a common basis. If policy sets quotation or approval rules, follow them or record an authorised exception. This programme does not impose a universal three-quotation rule.
Explain material differences rather than forcing unlike offers into a single league table. An offer may have a lower unit rate but more changing charges, narrower site flexibility or an additional service the school does not need. Preserve rejected options and the reasons for discounting them. Keep the cost calculation separate from the school's judgement about overall value.
Finish with a route you can explain
Your route note should say what is being bought, the legal customer, which requirements govern the exercise, the options considered, the selected support and why that approach is proportionate. Add the timetable, decision owners, any eligibility confirmation and unresolved questions. Then commission the work against a clear brief.
This is an England-focused guide. Public procurement has jurisdictional differences across the UK; devolved Scottish authorities are generally outside the Act's main regime, subject to specified arrangements, and Scotland retains its own legislation. A cross-border group should confirm the applicable route rather than copying an English status conclusion across its sites.