Procurement and contract management

Home – What we do –

Procurement and contract management

Bespoke support packages and cost-effective cloud-based procurement and auditing

Public money needs to be spent wisely, and with accountability

Maintained schools and academies have a duty to get the best value for money from every contract. We’ll help you make sure you’re buying the right services in the right way and complying with the law.

We manage a comprehensive range of procurement processes, including low-value RFPs (request for proposal), pre-tender benchmarking exercises, and compliant open and restricted tenders across multiple services and categories.

We also support clients using the established and successful ESPO Catering and Cleaning Frameworks via 704C ‘Procurement and Contract Management Support’.

Cloud-based procurement

Our bespoke, cloud-based tendering platform is hosted by In-Tend, a market leading e-procurement platform.

Our methodology is designed to achieve specific school objectives and deliver best value with high service standards throughout the entire life of the contract.

We can also tailor our procurement support to your school’s needs; offering advisory support if you want to run your own process, including supplying documentation and giving access to In-Tend, through to a fully managed service working as an expert within your team.

Contract Performance Management

Monitoring client services termly or annually keeps service levels high and contractors focused on high quality service and financial delivery.

Working as a critical friend we are objective, balanced and supportive in ensuring tender promises are delivered and SLA or KPI objectives are consistently achieved.

What others say

Our school has benefited from Glenn’s expertise and knowledge over a number of years to support our tendered catering and cleaning contracts. Throughout that time, we have found his advice and support invaluable. He is always happy to make himself available to help with any queries and I think he stands out as his service continues to be provided well into the contracts life cycle and not just at the start where the fees are made. I would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending his services.

Large Secondary School, Barnet, London

School Business Manager

Our academy has utilised Glenn’s expertise for multiple tenders now and each time have been blown away by his knowledge and dedication to his clients. Glenn truly does go above and beyond to ensure that every step is understood and completed appropriately by all parties.

Large East London Secondary Academy

Head of Estates and Operations

Glenn works with you rather than for you, always going the extra mile to ensure we get the best possible service. His knowledge and experience are second to none.

School Business Manager

Large Tower Hamlets Secondary School and Sixth Form

Preparing to deliver UFSM to all Secondary School pupils was a unique and challenging project and Cohesion Consulting were a major player in its successful delivery. Throughout the project they were totally committed to the task, delivering a survey report on all 20 schools within a very short timescale which formed the basis of a Cabinet report that was approved. At every stage of the project, they offered practical and best value solutions that were achievable to ensure that schools could be ready to deliver UFSM. Their expertise in project management, contract negotiations, commissioning and mobilisation was essential and throughout they were honest and approachable with the ability to engage at all levels with schools and the whole project team which made working with them a pleasure during this challenging but exciting project.

Tower Hamlets, London

Head of Contract Services

Glenn is professional, knowledgeable and fair, he has been totally invaluable to us with regards to our outsourced catering provision. Services covered to date include tender support, on boarding, implementation and monitoring. ​ Colleagues see Glenn as an extension to our internal resource, which is a reflection on how approaches his work, he views each £ we spend as his own. We see him as a trusted critical friend to ensure we are constantly challenging our suppliers and ourselves!

Large Multi-Academy Trust

Head of Procurement