Before using this route

Use this playbook only after confirming the buyer, governing regime and full estimated commitment. The standard 2026–27 sub-central goods and services threshold is £207,720 including VAT. Estimate the whole term, options and reasonably aggregable requirements. A school with an annual bill below that figure can still have an above-threshold multi-year requirement. The threshold changes procedure; it does not cap expenditure.

Schools, including academy trusts as explained by DfE, are excluded from Part 6 regulated below-threshold requirements. This playbook does not apply that exclusion to a council buying in its own right. Ordinary fee-funded independent schools should establish their legal status first. The sequence below is our recommended operating method; the actual school policy determines competition and approval requirements. Checked 2 November 2026.

1. Give the exercise an owner and a written starting decision

Owner: school business manager or trust procurement lead. Record the legal customer, fuels, meters, intended supply dates, existing commitments, notice deadlines, budget owner and signatory. Finance should review the valuation; an authorised officer should approve the proposed competition method before suppliers are approached.

Document: one-page route and authority record. Gate: the amount genuinely falls below the applicable threshold and the school has authority to use this process. If growth, options or uncertain scope could change that answer, pause route selection and obtain procurement input. Do not choose a shorter term simply to manufacture a below-threshold value.

2. Turn local policy into an actual procurement timetable

Owner: procurement lead, with the maintained school’s LA contact where needed. Identify the required number of responses, advertising rules, approval limits and permitted exceptions. DfE generally describes purchases above £40,000 as high value, but this is guidance rather than a universal statutory school threshold. A local policy can require more than informal quotations.

For maintained schools, check the actual financing scheme. DfE’s scheme guidance generally prevents permitting fewer than three tenders or quotations above £10,000 in one year, subject to listed exceptions. For academies, use the trust’s own competitive procurement policy. Record any lawful, properly authorised exception and its rationale; a broker’s preferred practice cannot amend that policy.

3. Appoint one adviser without confusing it with the supply award

Owner: school procurement lead. Decide whether the team needs TPI support and procure that service appropriately. Write the adviser’s scope, supplier coverage, fees, conflicts, reporting and exit obligations. The quotation-stage authority should be limited; retain the school’s power to approve and accept supply.

Document: adviser appointment and service schedule, separate from the energy contract. Gate: the school knows which supplier offers are being sought and which checks remain independent. DfE recommends another supplier quotation where a broker supplies multiple offers. This need not mean appointing several brokers to approach the same suppliers.

4. Issue one requirement that respondents can price

Owner: school data owner, checked by finance and estates. Release a versioned meter schedule, verified consumption, forecast changes, common supply dates and required service. Include a quotation response schedule covering every charge, exclusions, remuneration, volume provisions, site changes, tax assumptions and acceptance validity.

State the submission deadline, clarification channel, evaluation method and expected terms. Decide the price and service assessment before seeing offers. Request realistic offer validity or a transparent proposed pricing process. If prices cannot remain valid through your approvals, solve that before launching; do not leave an adviser to choose an unapproved replacement price at signature.

5. Maintain an equal information and response record

Owner: procurement lead. Issue material clarifications consistently and preserve each version. Log invitations, responses, refusals, missing information and the reason for any deadline change. Allow time proportionate to the requirement; the schools’ Part 6 exclusion does not make an unrealistic or inconsistent deadline good practice.

Document: communication and receipt register. Gate: respondents have priced the same requirement and outstanding qualifications are visible. If insufficient offers arrive, follow the school’s policy for extending, re-running or approving an exception. Do not invent unsuccessful quotations or record an adviser’s unsupported assurance as competitive evidence.

6. Evaluate cost, conditions, service and uncertainty together

Owner: finance evaluator and procurement reviewer, with technical input where needed. Apply the method stated in the brief. Reconcile differences in meters, dates and volumes before ranking. Show the full delivered cost, separate embedded fees without double counting, and test material demand or pass-through changes.

Keep the assessment of suitability and contractual exceptions beside the price. Record evidence for service scores. An academy using an alternative to approved energy options must also establish the required equivalent-value case: obtain the approved-route comparison and retain written evaluation, recommendation, governance decision and SRMSAC evidence. A below-threshold amount does not remove that academy requirement.

7. Make and communicate the authorised decision

Owner: delegated decision-maker. Receive the comparison, recommendation, conflicts record, final terms, remaining risks and implementation plan. Record approval and any conditions before acceptance. Confirm the live price and complete terms still match what was authorised; refresh approval if the permitted limits are exceeded.

For a school below threshold there is no automatic Part 6 requirement for a UK4 below-threshold tender notice or UK7 below-threshold contract details notice, nor a statutory public-contract assessment summary or eight-working-day standstill. Record this basis instead of silently omitting notices. Follow any additional local policy, funding or contractual commitments and give bidders suitable written outcome feedback.

8. Close the procurement with a working handover

Owner: implementation lead. Retain evidence of binding acceptance, supplier and TPI notice acknowledgements, meter registration, readings, billing details and the first invoice review. Make the school’s record accessible if staff change. Check service commencement and unresolved switching issues rather than treating the signature as completion.

The completed folder should answer four questions: why this route, why this offer, who authorised it and who now manages it. The final gate is a documented handover with notice dates and next review already assigned. If a later variation could move the arrangement over threshold, assess the proposed change before agreeing it; below-threshold status is not a permanent exemption for an expanding contract.

When the school should stop and resolve the gap

Pause before acceptance if the valuation or authority is unresolved, the offers describe different meters, a material cost remains unpriced, the required comparison has not been made or the offer has expired. Give each issue an owner and a resolution date. Where only one acceptable response remains, follow the applicable policy rather than presenting it as a completed three-offer competition. The useful output is an explicit decision about the gap: correct the information, refresh offers, approve a permitted exception, re-run the process or use another suitable route.