Schools, like all other organisations, have to spend money to carry out their work. Premises costs, communications, energy, water, waste management, business consumables, finance and insurance are just some of the essential operational overheads incurred, without which they cannot function.

Traditional cost reduction programmes focus on headline prices and short-term savings, but this approach overlooks many of the issues that affect the real cost of purchasing business overheads.

Just because a supplier offers you a low price it doesn’t mean that you will maintain quality and make meaningful, long-term savings. After all, how do you know if it’s the best price? What if their prices go up next month and you’re tied into a long-term contract? Will they apply minimum charges that push your costs up rather than down? Do you have time to monitor your prices constantly and check your bills? And so on.

QES Consulting offers a service that on average saves schools around £5000 per annum. This service requires no upfront payment by the school. A QES consultant will contact the school and agree a percentage cut of the savings, made only after the savings are calculated and processed by the school.