Frameworks for education

With countless regulations, fragmented processes and tighter budgets, sourcing high-quality goods and services is becoming increasingly difficult for the education sector. With ESPO’s procurement frameworks, all the hard work has been done for you to ensure that the procurement process is as smooth as possible.

We’ve collated a group of our most popular and relevant framework solutions, providing access to quality-checked suppliers that meet all UK procurement regulations – helping save you time and money.

Looking for higher and further education frameworks? Find out more here. 

Our frameworks offer a variety of options to help you provide healthy, nutritious meals within your education environment. Canteen services, fresh and frozen food and consultancy services are just a few of the options that you can explore.

• Department for Education (DfE) approved.
• Offers an extensive range of food, including grocery and chilled provisions, frozen foods, fresh meat, fruit and vegetables.
• Suppliers can offer products to suit special dietary requirements such as vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, nut free, lactose free and halal.  
• All suppliers’ food safety accreditations are monitored throughout the lifetime of the framework.
• From our blog: Framework to fork: the key ingredients for procuring your food supplier

• Department for Education (DfE) approved.
• Provides access to a wide range of suppliers that help meet your requirements.
• Suppliers can offer a variety of different catering provisions from dining room to canteen-style services. They can also offer a range of service models, including onsite or offsite preparation, service and consumption.
• Suppliers can provide assistance with marketing, reducing costs and maximising meal uptake.
• From our blog: Catering services for schools - free school meals

• Features specialist suppliers who can support you in conducting a further competition through ESPO's Catering Services framework (704).
• Assistance can be tailored to your needs, e.g. reviewing tender documents or conducting a further competition.
• Offers support in the management of your supplier, looking at KPIs/SLAs, cost and efficiency identification.

Whether it’s new, old or something in between, a clean, safe and inspiring environment can lay a solid foundation for success. Our buildings frameworks can support you with everything from cleaning solutions to advice and management.

• Department for Education (DfE) approved.
• Provides access to a range of service providers who will accommodate your cleaning specifications.
• Covers general cleaning, window cleaning and deep cleaning, such as the removal of graffiti and chewing gum.
• Includes the purchase/rental of HPV and UPC decontamination systems on an ongoing, reactive or scheduled basis.

• Designed for customers to run a further competition exercise through ESPO's Total Cleaning Service Solutions framework (263).
• Suppliers can provide ongoing or one-off contract management services.
• Support available for tender stages, including site visits and interviews, and completion of call-off terms.

• Provides a quick and simple route to property advice and management services.
• Covers projects such as new builds, major repairs due to fire or vandalism, compliance (e.g. gaining planning permission) or cost management.
• Can be used for invoice checking.

• Gain access to several suppliers offering washroom services.
• Includes collection and disposal of sanitary and medical waste.
• Features washroom equipment and consumables, including hand dryer rental.

• Department for Education (DfE) approved.
• ESPO acts as an intermediary to buy electricity in the wholesale market on your behalf.
• A single school will pay the same commodity price as multiple-site customers.
• Experts are available to talk to key stakeholders including trustees and governors.
• Specialists in working with multi-academy trusts to manage suppliers and contract end dates to transfer the portfolio, align contract end dates and provide greater visibility and control.

• Department for Education (DfE) approved.
• ESPO acts as an intermediary to buy gas in the wholesale market on your behalf.
• A single school will pay the same commodity price as multiple-site customers.
• Experts are available to talk to key stakeholders including trustees and governors.
• Specialists in working with multi-academy trusts to manage suppliers and contract end dates to transfer the portfolio, align contract end dates and provide greater visibility and control.

Sport teaches the importance of a healthy lifestyle, teamwork and communication in schools. Combined with leisure facilities for downtime, it makes an important contribution to any education setting. Through our frameworks, you can access sports surfaces, facilities, natural play, synthetic grass and much more.

• Department for Education (DfE) approved.
• Allows the purchase of the design, supply, delivery, installation, maintenance and inspection of a range of outdoor equipment.
• Covers everything from outdoor playground equipment, outdoor fitness equipment and sports surfaces and facilities to 3G football pitches, long jump facilities and tennis courts.
• The latest framework now includes indoor sensory equipment, soft play equipment and splash/water parks.

As IT becomes more engrained in our education system, it can be a huge task to procure and upkeep equipment alongside what's needed for day-to-day administration tasks. Our documents and IT frameworks provide access to market-leading suppliers that cover everything from multifunctional devices and laptops, to iPads and cloud solutions.

• Department for Education (DfE) approved.
• You can procure all your technology needs under one framework, making it a true one-stop shop.
• Standalone services for supporting technology such as maintenance, asset management, installation, etc.
• Enables sustainability by providing end-to-end services for the lifecycle of technology products: buy, upgrade, maintain and recycle.
• Lot 6 is dedicated to Education Technology – our full framework can be viewed here.
• From our blog: Procurement Made Simple With Our New Technology Products and Associated Services (TePAS 2) Framework (RM6098)!

Aggregated buying through our TePAS framework (RM6098)

• Provides an easy route to MFDs, managed print services, print consultancy services, technical resources, digital workflow and cloud solutions.
• Designed with all-inclusive, fixed pricing meaning there are no hidden costs.
• Market-leading suppliers are available.

As working conditions change, you may find yourself putting more of a focus on people and professional services. This category can help you with everything from marketing and recruitment to specialist consultancy services such as treasury management, audit consultancy and social care.

• Department for Education (DfE) approved.
• Fill a wide range of temporary and fixed-term posts in both teaching and non-teaching roles.
• Great value for money and complete transparency of costs – schools are saving an average of 7%.
• Reduced agency mark-ups (the fee an agency charges) giving a fairer deal to schools and workers.
• No costly temp-to-perm fees after 12 weeks with four weeks’ notice – typically a saving of £4,000-5,000.

• Designed to provide access to payment services such as prepaid and corporate payments.
• Reduces risk and cost compared to traditional cash methods.
• Can facilitate multiple transactions, streamline processes and provide robust terms and conditions.

With everything to consider from general to medical waste, education organisations have a legal duty to dispose of waste correctly and provide the right facilities for young people. Our waste and environment frameworks provide a variety of services to ensure your organisation is kept clean and safe.

• Allows access to suppliers providing a wide range of grounds maintenance services.
• Offers regular maintenance of grassed areas, hard landscape areas and sports facilities as well as disposal of rubbish, rubble, leaves, etc.
• Can provide the removal of snow and gritting of walkways and car parks.

• Provides a simple, reliable and competitive route to procuring waste and recycling collection and disposal services.
• Regular, ad-hoc and emergency collection services are available.
• A process has been put in place to ensure you cannot be automatically charged for overweight bins – the weight must be monitored over a set time period.
• From our blog: How to apply for food waste funding