Procurement Benchmarking
Why would you use it?
How does it work?
Are you concerned you're spending
too much on products or services?
Do you know how your school spend
compares to similar schools?
This tool shows you how to
benchmark successfully - this will
help you check how your school's
spend compares to other similar
sized schools, check if you are buying
from the right supplier and check if
the supplier is giving you a good
price.
Procurement Benchmarking Tool
Helping you find real savings
Key question:
How can I check if I am getting good Value for Money on my contracts?
Step 1
Check how your spend
compares to other schools
of similar size
Check if you are buying
from the right place
Check if your supplier is
giving you a good price
Step 3
Step 2
Click the ‘F5’ button to view
in slide-show format, and
then click on the steps to
find out more!
Step 1: Benchmarking against other schools
Why is benchmarking my spend against other schools important?
Regular benchmarking is procurement best practice. By comparing your spend on a per pupil basis with schools with similar characteristics, you can check if you are getting good value for money.
What does it give me?
Benchmarking your school spend by contract will tell you if you are spending above or below average compared with schools with similar characteristics. This will give you a rough idea of potential for savings – if you find you are spending significantly above average, then you are probably not getting good value for money and can make cost-savings by switching suppliers, changing your contract or altering your behaviour. Of course, there may be perfectly good reasons for a school to be above or below average, but by reviewing where differences exist, and questioning the reasons for the differences, you can identify the areas where savings can be made
How can I do it?
The most comprehensive way to compare your spend to similar schools is the schools financial benchmarking website. If this
doesn’t meet your needs, there are other ways to benchmark your spend. Click on the buttons below to find out more.
Schools Financial
Benchmarking website
Alternative
benchmarking methods
Collates revenue and expenditure for all maintained schools in England through Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR)
Helps you check if you are getting good value for money on your contracts
Useful tool for demonstrating value for money to parents, governors and auditors
If the schools financial benchmarking website doesn’t give you the information you need (perhaps you are looking at a specific spend category that isn’t captured in the CFR data), there are other ways of
benchmarking your spend against other schools
Click on the button to find out more
What is benchmarking?
Benchmarking is another word for “comparing”. Often when you benchmark, you use specific measures to help you in your comparison, such as cost or quality
Step 2: Am I buying from the right place?
Schools need to buy a wide variety of products and services: from blue tack to photocopiers, from cleaning to payroll. There are many suppliers in the market and it is often difficult to choose how to buy and where to buy from.
There are four key channels that schools can buy from:
Local Authority
Education consortium (also known as the Pro5, consisting of: ESPO, West Mercia Supplies, CBC, NEPO, YPO)
Local / private market supplier (e.g. local cleaning company, online e.g. Amazon.co.uk)
OGC (national procurement for the public sector)
Which channel will provide you with the best value for money will depend on the type of product or service. For instance, an LA contract is likely to offer you the best value for money for Energy, whereas the best deals for printer cartridges can be found on the internet. The sourcing guide below gives you a quick checklist to check if you are buying the right products and services from the right channel.
Sourcing guide for
schools
Lists all the key categories for non-staff spend and lets you know which of the four channels are likely to offer you the best value for money
Can use as a sense check to see if you are buying from the right place
If you are unfamiliar with a particular spend area, points you in the right direction of where best to buy from
More info on the 4 key
channels
Which is your local education consortium?
Step 3: Am I getting a good price?
It is important to regularly check if you are getting a good price and the agreed level of service from your supplier. Competition is rising in many markets and the internet is further decreasing prices – so what may have been a good deal five years ago is
actually poor value for money today. It is especially important to “test your supplier” against the market when your contract comes up for renewal. Remember – before rolling over a contract, check if a different supplier could offer you better value for money!
Once a contract is in place, it is important to monitor the supplier’s performance. This is often called “supplier management” or “contract management”. This will help you get good value for money by ensuring that you are getting the full service that you are paying for.
How to benchmark
your supplier
Benchmarking your supplier means checking prices or getting quotes from other suppliers and comparing them to what you are paying. Based on your findings you may wish to switch suppliers, or negotiate new terms with your current supplier.
Regularly doing this will give you the confidence that you are getting the best value for money. It will also keep your supplier in check!
Click on the button to find out more
Top tips for contract
management
How to ensure you are getting the full service you are paying for
Logging into the benchmarking website
Website welcome page Step 2: Enter your username and
password. These will be the same as you use for School 2 School (S2S)
If you do not know your username or password, you can request this by emailing
[email protected] phoning 01325 392 626 and quoting your 3 digit LA and 4 digit school establishment number
Top Tip
Step 3: Press the Log In button
Step 1: Go to https://sfb.teachernet.gov.uk/login.aspx. You will be greeted with a welcome page as below
Your school’s welcome page
Your school’s welcome page
Click here to view your school’s CFR data
If you are looking for a “quick and simple” benchmark check, then going straight to the automatically generated charts is sufficient. If you are carrying out a more detailed benchmarking exercise, you should select you own comparators to ensure that you are comparing schools with the most similar characteristics as possible
Top Tip
Click here to go straight to an automatically generated set of charts.
This option automatically creates a benchmark set of 20 schools using commonly used comparison criteria such as school phase, number on roll,
urban/rural location
Once you login, your school’s welcome page will pop up. Here you are able to select from the options provided:
View your school’s CFR data. Find out exactly how much you received in funding last year and what you spent it on
Select a benchmark set for you to compare your income and expenditure against
View an automatically generated set of charts – quickly find out how much your spend per pupil compares with a benchmark set of 20 schools
Click here to manually select your own comparators
Here you can choose the types of schools you want to compare yourself against, e.g. foundation schools, nurseries, schools with a sixth form
Viewing CFR data for your school
Your school’s data This box provides a
summary of the total income, expenditure and the difference between the two
Click here to view historical trends in your school’s data over the last 5 years.
This can be useful for looking at the effect of any budget changes you have implemented
This page displays the CFR data submitted for your school along with information about the number of pupils on roll and the number of teachers employed (full time equivalent)
You may wish to change some values of the CFR data to carry out “What If?” scenarios – e.g. what would happen if my pupil numbers fell by 50? This can be done by overwriting the data on this page, e.g. changing the number of pupils, and pressing “store as custom data”. Don’t worry – your original data will not be lost! Click “Help” to find out more about using custom data for
Two ways to benchmark
1. The quick and simple way to benchmark
Go straight to “Charts” and let the website automatically choose which schools are included in y our benchmark set.
The website will choose a sample of 20 schools with broadly similar characteristics to you.
2. The longer, more detailed way to benchmark
For more accurate benchmarking exercises, it is suggested that you select your own comparators, i.e. you decide which type of schools are included in your benchmark set.
There are 3 ways in which to select comparator schools against which to assess your income and expenditure:
If you choose this method, you can skip the next page of this guide and proceed straight to “Viewing charts and data”.
Statistical Neighbours: allows you to generate a group of statistically similar schools based on school characteristics of your choice.
Manual Selection: allows you to select schools based on ranges of values for each of your chosen criteria. This option gives you the greatest amount of flexibility with choosing which schools make it into your comparator group.
Specific Schools: allows you to select specific schools by name and local authority within the same school phase. This enables you to compare yourself against schools that you know face similar contexts, or when you want to explore differences with schools. You should aim for a benchmark set of between 20-30 schools.
Selecting your benchmark set
1. Statistical Neighbours
2. Manual Selection
3. Specific Schools You can edit the size of
your sample set here Tick the criteria that you want to use in your comparison exercise
You can enter in exactly the ranges you want to include in your
comparison e.g. schools with 200-220 pupils. Start with your most important criteria first. This will usually be school phase, and no. of pupils
To enter in more criteria, click on this button to expand the relevant rows you want to include After entering each criteria, press the “Check
matches” option on the top right of the page. You need to get your sample size below 80 schools to proceed to the next stage of the exercise
Fill out your desired criteria and press “Search”
Next step: Proceed to charts
Once you have selected your benchmark set (and got the matches down to fewer than 80 schools), you are ready to carry out your comparison! Click on the “Proceed to charts” button at the top right of your page
Viewing charts and data
Once the benchmark set has been selected, comparison charts can be viewed. This is the final stage in the process where you can check to see if you are below or above average compared to similar schools
1. Selecting a chart
The tree view directory allows you to navigate through the available charts. Click the ‘+’ icon to expand and the ‘-’ icon to collapse 2. Interpreting a chart
The blue bar denotes where your school sits within the benchmark set
There are 3 options for how the charts are viewed: per pupil (default), per teacher, and as a percentage of total
income/expenditure. Select desired option from drop-down menu
The mean value for the benchmarking group is shown by the line across the chart. Median: mid-point of data – half of schools are above this value, half below it. Upper quartile: Marks the point for which 25% of schools are above and 75% below Lower quartile: Marks the point for which 25% of schools are below and 75% above Clicking on the chart will zoom in and open
the chart in a new window. Here you can identify schools by holding the cursor over the bar of any school – the school name will become visible.
Top Tip
3. Downloading data If you want to save your findings, you can
select the “Download chart data” option at the bottom right of the screen
Alternative benchmarking methods
The key question that you are trying to answer is:
“How does my spend on telecoms/reprographics/cleaning/any contract compare to other schools in my area?”
To allow for like-for-like comparison, the best way to compare costs is to use spend per pupil. To calculate spend per pupil:
Spend per pupil = Annual spend Number of pupils
The more schools you can benchmark your school against, the better. At the same time, remember that this type of
information is subjective - there may be perfectly good reasons why your spend is above or below other schools in your area.
What is important is that you review the differences and question the reasons for them. For schools which have a lower spend per pupil than you, ask the question: “what are you doing differently to me?”
Sources of benchmarking information:
Your local authority procurement lead may have spend information for schools with similar characteristics to your school. Explain you want to check if you are getting VfM on a particular contract.
Calling schools in your area is a great way to collect and share information. By doing this, you may spot
opportunities to collaborate and make savings by buying a product or service together.
Use bursar/SBM networking events to discuss your procurement and benchmark your procurement spend and practices against those
of other schools.
Contact your Local Authority
Check with your cluster
If you are part of a cluster, why not suggest a knowledge sharing meeting where you go through your key contract areas and compare spend per pupil, discuss suppliers and share best practice. Where possible, try to identify
opportunities for collaboration.
Use networking events
Sourcing guide for schools
Product / Service Category
(Non-staff) Notes
C
FR
C
ode
COLLABORATE? Source From
(A) Local Authority (B) Consortium (C) OGC/ OGCbs (D) Local
Administrative supplies Printing, Stationery, Reprographics, Postage,
Periodicals, Brochure E22
☺
☺
☺
☺
☺
Agency supply teaching staff Teacher cover E26
☺
☺
☺
☺
Bought in professional services - curriculum Professional services, Consultancy for curriculumsupport E27
☺
☺
☺
Bought in professional services - other Professional services, Consultancy for non-curriculum support E28☺
☺
☺
Building maintenance and improvement Fixtures, Fittings, labour E12
☺
☺
☺
☺
Catering supplies Provisions. Repair, maintenance & purchase of catering equipment E25
☺
☺
☺
☺
Cleaning & caretaking Equipment & Services E14☺
☺
☺
Energy Electricity, Gas, Solid Fuel E16
☺
☺
Grounds maintenance and improvement Play areas, Grounds, Car parking E13
☺
☺
☺
ICT Learning Resources (for teaching) ICT hardware, software, broadband E20
☺
☺
☺
Learning Resources (not ICT equipment) Books, Furniture, Teaching materials E19
☺
☺
☺
☺
Other occupation costs Refuse collection, Hygiene services, Pest control, Security, Rents, Lease E18
☺
☺
☺
Other insurance premiums Premises, Vehicle, School trip E23
☺
☺
Water & sewerage Plus emptying of septic tanks E15
☺
☺
☺
Capitalised expenditure Land acquisition, vehicles, construction plus fees, ICT hardware
C
E01
More info on the 4 buying channels
Local Authority
Education consortium Local/private market suppliers
Education consortia work in partnership with local authorities and act as an association of independent purchasing and supplies organisations, often comprising local companies. They operate on a not-for-profit basis:? MW questioned this statement – he also wanted a statement about still needing to benchmark as these consortia are not always the best value.
CBC (Central Buying Consortium) www.cbconline.org.uk
Contact Tel: 01962 847831
Coventry, Portsmouth and Southampton. Luton and Northampton, Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Suffolk and West Sussex
ESPO (Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation) www.espo.org
Service Desk Tel: 0116 265 7878
Cambridgeshire, Leicester City, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Peterborough, Warwickshire
NEPO (North Eastern Purchasing Organisation) www.qtegov.comService Desk Tel: 0191 433 5949
Sunderland, Durham, Darlington, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Middleborough, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, Redcar & Cleveland, South Tyneside Stockton, Carlisle, South Gloucestershire, Windsor & maidenhead, Swindon
WMS (West Mercia Supplies) www.westmerciasupplies.co.uk
Service Desk Tel: 01743 24113
Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, Worcestershire
YPO (Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation) www.ypo.co.uk
Service Desk Tel: 01924 824477
Barnsley, Bolton, Bradford, Calderdale, Doncaster, Kirklees, Knowsley, North Yorkshire, Rotherham, St Helen’s, Wakefield, Wigan, York, Bury
OGC
The Office for Government Commerce (OGC) was established to help the public sector deliver best value from its spending. It has set up a “procurement portal” called Buying Solutions which allows any organisation in the public sector (including schools) to access all the contracts it has negotiated with suppliers. The contracts database on buying solutions provides you with a choice of over 500,000 products and services through a network of 1,000 suppliers. Register on the website to search whether any of the pre-negotiated contracts suit your needs:
OGCbs (Buying Solutions) www.buyingsolutions.gov.uk
Service Desk Tel: 0345 410 2222
These are all the other suppliers in the market excluding education consortiums, LAs and the OGC. These range from local cleaning companies, private payroll providers to online stationary shops. The best way to research whether this buying channel could provide you with value for money is to use the internet. If you require a locally provided service (e.g. cleaning, catering, grounds maintenance) use the yellow pages (www.yell.com) and type in your postcode and the service you require. For all other services, simply use google – for instance, if you are looking for a payroll provider, type “education payroll” into google. Likewise, if you are looking for printer paper, type in “A4 printer paper” into google, and you will be presented with a variety of online providers. Shop around where you can – but remember, don’t spend hours trying to save 10p on a pack of pencils! Focus on finding good deals for high value items, or products that you buy on a regular basis.
Local Authorities have a long history of providing services to schools. Many schools still opt into their LA’s SLAs (Service Level Agreements) for services spanning cleaning, HR, payroll and ICT. These contracts usually run for 1 year from 1 Apr.
Because LAs are able to purchase on a much bigger scale than individual schools can, they are often able to offer better value for money. However, if your needs are very specific, you may not be able to get the tailored solution that you are looking for from your LA. Furthermore, with the rise of private providers in the market for school services, you should always check whether your local authority is offering you the best value for money in terms of quality of service and cost. You can do this by benchmarking them against other suppliers on a regular basis (see next section on “how do I benchmark my supplier”.
How to benchmark your suppliers
Collecting quotes and prices from suppliers is much easier than you think! The page summarises the various sources you can use to benchmark your suppliers. It is divided into products and services.
Use the template to help you collect quotes
Services Products
Examples: stationery, paper, toner
Search engine, e.g. google
Type in your product name into the search engine e.g. Epson C50 toner. Browse some websites and note down prices. Use the google shopping tool.
Education Consortium
Check your local education consortium’s product catalogue. This can be accessed online.
Schools quote
www.schoolsquote.co.ukallows you to anonymously request quotes from a number of suppliers. This is particularly useful for ICT hardware quotes.
OPEN
Check if your LA has signed up to OPEN – the e-procurement catalogue. It is similar to Amazon.co.uk, but especially tailored to schools.
Examples: cleaning, reprographics, catering, grounds maintenance
Local Authority
If you are not buying from our Local
Authority, call your LA procurement lead to check if they provide the service and what the annual price of the contract is.
Compare this to your current cost and level of service.
Yellow Pages/ www.yell.com
Search for local providers: enter in your postcode online and your contract name, e.g. “cleaning”. Contact suppliers with your requirements, e.g. number of hours of cleaning needed per week, and collect at least 3 estimates – they don’t have to be very detailed at this stage. Compare to your current cost – are you getting good value for money? If there is more than 10% variation in price, you should investigate further.
Other schools
Use your school network to find out how much other suppliers are charging. Also ask for references and recommendations.
Education consortia
Contact your local education consortia and enquire if they supply that product/service.
OGC
For larger-value contracts, check if you can access a framework contract. Register at
www.buyingsolutions.gov.uk. This allows you to view prices, and send an invitation to quote to relevant suppliers.
Template for collecting quotes
Current Supplier Annual cost £ £ £ £ Cost per pupil £ £ £ £ Difference in cost to current supplier £0 £ £ £Generic template
A. Number of cleaning hours per week
hrs
B. Cost per cleaning hour £
C. Number of cleaning weeks in year
#
Annual cost (A x B x C) £
Cost per pupil
Difference in total cost to current supplier
Cleaning quotes
Reprographics quotes
Current supplier
A: Annual leasing charge £
B: BW copy charge £
C: BW copies per year (estimate) #
D: Total BW copying cost (B x C) £
E: Colour copy charge £
F: Colour copies per year (estimate) # G: Total Colour copying cost (E X F) £
Total annual cost (A + D + G) £
Insert supplier name into top row and fill out values below:
Create your own blank templates here: Top Tip
Top tips for supplier management
Contract scorecard
The best way to monitor and manage a supplier is to keep a written record of how they are performing against your specification and agreed KPIs (key performance indicators). An example of a KPI is “% of deliveries on time” – you may agreed to keep this at a minimum of 95% and you need to monitor whether your supplier is performing to the agreed level. A contract scorecard, such as the example below, using RAG (red, amber, green) ratings is an easy way to do this. You can change the headings to make it relevant to your school and specification.
Schedule regular meetings with your supplier to provide feedback and discuss improvements and any actions. Also request feedback from your supplier – how are they finding working with you? Is there anything you could do to improve your working relationship?
Contract and supplier management ultimately leads to a better relationship between you and your supplier, and hopefully a product/service offering that closely matches your needs.
Some contracts may need more management than others.
High risk, high expenditure, and service contracts should be prioritised. Notes
