How does buying for schools and trusts work?

Understand the basics of how your school or trust buys goods and services.

Last reviewed on 16 December 2025See updates
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Contents
  1. What is procurement?
  2. Understand the routes for buying
  3. What’s your role?

What is procurement?

Buying goods and services for your school is known as procurement.

This includes everything from small, day-to-day purchases such as cleaning supplies to large, long-term contracts for energy or ICT services. It doesn't include staffing costs.

How your school buys something depends on how much it will cost. Generally, the more money you’re spending, the more formal the process needs to be. This reduces the risk of buying something that isn’t suitable for your school.

Know what low to high value is for your school

Your local authority (LA) may set out different thresholds to those listed here, so you should check these first.

Low value to be under £10,000 Medium value to be £10,000