Up to 5% rebate earned on annual catalogue stock spend
Access to exclusive discounts throughout the year
Free access and support using our frameworks
Professional procurement support
Over £1 million saved by our package customers last year!
Introducing our My Academy Trust package
Our My Academy Trust package has been designed specifically to support multi-academy trusts of five or more academies with the challenges they face by combining our one-stop shop offering with exclusive benefits and additional support from our expert teams.
As your procurement partner, we understand the pressure multi-academy trusts are under; tight budgets, time constraints and challenging procurement requirements are just the tip of the iceberg!
Our solution? We take the complexity out of procurement and provide real time, and cost savings directly to both our trusts and their academies, along with ongoing expert support on hand from ESPO whenever it’s needed.
The exclusive benefits our MAT package customers have access to ensure that they are getting true best value through their combined buying power, in addition to fantastic discounts that can be taken advantage of throughout the year.
Buy together, Save together
Harness the potential of your combined buying power
Whether you have centralised your spending or your academies still lead their own buying, by aggregating your spend you can earn up to 5% rebate on annual catalogue spend accumulated from across your trust’s multiple sites, meaning that the more you spend with ESPO, the more savings you’ll generate.
As more of your academies use ESPO for their everyday buying needs, your MAT can increase its rebate earning opportunity and therefore achieve even greater annual returns for your trust.
Using ESPO as their main supplier, academy trusts can achieve significant savings by means of a retrospective rebate on their eligible spend:
*SPP – Spend Per Pupil
Rebate calculations are made using the total ESPO stock spend of a trust, converted to an average spend per pupil equivalent. The pupil data we use to make these calculations is taken from the gov.uk website’s ‘Get information about schools’ page. Please contact us to find out the rebate earning potential of your trust.
For the public sector, by the public sector
ESPO is a professional buying organisation; 100% owned by the public sector, any surplus we make after recovering our costs is returned to the public purse. We strive to offer best value and procurement support for all walks of the public sector and have been working in the education supplies industry for over 40 years.
We are committed to providing valuefor-money for our customers by pursuing best practice in procurement, sourcing, supply chain management, contract management and compliance with UK procurement legislation.
Service to shout about
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. Our dedicated in-house Customer Services team are on hand to offer support with any queries you may have, and with low response times guaranteed throughout the year, your enquiry will be sorted as quickly as possible.
We’ve received the Feefo Gold Service award based on our customer feedback. We’re also doing our part for the environment by subscribing to Treefo and turning feedback into forests; for every customer review we receive, we help fund a treeplanting project.
True best value
While some providers like to use core product lists and artificial discounts on higher regular prices, ESPO opt for an open and honest pricing strategy offering consistently low prices on our products every day. Along with your annual rebate earning potential, your multi-academy trust can achieve true best value overall through ESPO. This year, we’ve dropped prices on over 8,500 of our products and held prices on a further 900+ products, so you don’t need to rely on extensive discounts to beat your budget across the year!
...we’ve dropped prices on over 8,500 of our products and held prices on a further 900+ products...
Part of the Get Help Buying for Schools service
Buy with confidence knowing that the ESPO catalogue has been selected as a best value option by the Department for Education (DfE). Both our catalogue and our DfE approved frameworks are part of the Get Help Buying for Schools service, which aims to support schools and trusts to buy goods and services compliantly and have peace of mind that they are getting good value in terms of cost and quality.
Why ESPO?
We’re your one-stop shop
With over 40 years’ experience supplying the education sector, ESPO can truly provide a one-stop shop solution including a vast range of products, free to access framework solutions and bespoke support for large-scale procurement projects.
Our comprehensive catalogue range
Selected as a best value option by the DfE, our comprehensive catalogue boasts over 27,000 products at consistently low prices, covering a wide range of resources and consumables.
From big brands you know and love, to our own brand, Smartbuy products, our range offers choice, value and expertise across key categories:
Put our prices to the test
We regularly compare our prices with other suppliers to make sure we remain competitive. We are happy to benchmark orders for you, to show just how much you could save by using ESPO.
Exclusive savings for your MAT
As a My Academy Trust customer, you will receive exclusive discounts throughout the academic year, giving you the flexibility to utilise our offers to suit your budgets and make further cost savings.
Don’t forget, if all of your academies use ESPO as their main supplier, with your exclusive benefits you’ll be making even more cost savings across the year – and across your entire trust!
7.5% off our stock range* for a period of your choosing from the following dates:
Window 1: 15/04/24 – 26/05/24
Window 2: 09/09/24 – 20/10/24
Window 3: 04/11/24 – 15/12/24
Window 4: 06/01/25 – 16/02/25
Window 5: 24/02/25 – 30/03/25
5% off our exercise book and Smartbuy stock product range throughout the year*
You’ll also receive our standard Summer Holiday Offer discount of 7.5% off our stock products!
*Terms & conditions apply
Our procurement solutions
ESPO provide free access to over 120 frameworks for our customers. They are simple to use, fully compliant with UK procurement regulations, and offer your trust a pre-approved and efficient route to sourcing a wide range of products and services.
To make sourcing what you need even easier, we’ve created our dedicated Frameworks for Education hub. Covering everything from supply teachers to energy to catering to washroom services, our frameworks provide support in key education procurement areas such as:
Books and library resources
Education technology products
Energy and utilities
Facilities management
Sports and leisure equipment
What’s more, your collective buying power as a trust means consolidating your spend and requirements could maximise your cost savings even further.
Department for Education approved ESPO frameworks
A number of our frameworks are now Department of Education (DfE) approved, meaning our frameworks have been assessed for their compliance with UK procurement regulations, ease of use, suitability and value for money for the education sector – ensuring you have peace of mind when procuring goods and services for your trust.
We now have DfE approved ESPO frameworks across the following categories:
Books, library resources and education supplies
Energy and utilities
Food and catering services Visit espo.org
Facilities management
Food and catering
Extra procurement support for your trust
We know that Academy Business Leaders are becoming increasingly responsible for the procurement of a growing number of different goods and services, which may require additional levels of knowledge and expertise.
Whether you’re new to procurement or have substantial experience, our frameworks are designed to ease the burden by doing all the hard work for you, saving you time and effort. We’re always on hand to provide extra support with template documents, step by step guides and our in-house expert team are just a phone call away.
On top of this our My Academy Trust customers are also eligible to receive additional support including:
Assistance with ongoing contract management
Professional support for Furniture & Equipment projects
Do you have a new build, refurbishment or larger furniture and equipment project in the pipeline? Whether you have your own funding or will be receiving either School Condition Allocations (SCA) or the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF), we’re here to support you.
We know refurbishment and new build projects can be overwhelming; that’s why we have our very own Furniture & Equipment (F&E) Projects team available to offer a helping hand. Specialising in new build and refurbishment projects with over 30 years’ industry experience between them, the team can work closely with you to support your specific needs and streamline the process, helping to ensure things run smoothly from start to finish.
Every project is different, that’s why our F&E Projects team can offer varying levels of support based on your requirements and preferences, going from serving purely as a procurement and supply function, all the way to a full project management service.
We can provide an experienced Project Manager and, along with the expertise of ESPO and our suppliers, they can support in the strict management of:
Procurement and compliance
Budget control
Product selection and ordering
Timings and deadlines
Delivery and installation
Market insight and product advice
Don’t just take our word for it: What our My Academy Trust customers say
“When the My Academy Trust Package was introduced to us, the benefits of joining the scheme were very clear – it was a ‘no-brainer’ moment.
Numerous savings have been made throughout the year on ESPO stock products and the spend per pupil rebate helps to reduce the overall spend on school items. The 7.5% off discount window is very useful as all school budgets are continually squeezed.
Dave Rushton, Operations Manager at Christ the King Catholic Collegiate
Our dedicated Account Manager is very proactive in keeping us updated with the latest promotions from ESPO so that we can take advantage of price promotions and services, and we’ve had lots of support and advice on ESPO’s framework offering.
Overall, the MAT Package provides cost saving opportunities and a rebate on spend per pupil which equates to a discount on the spend made in each year – we would highly recommend any multiacademy trust to sign up!”
“We thought the My Academy Trust Package ticked all the boxes.
As well as the standard savings from the offers and promotions across ESPO’s range, we always take advantage of the 7.5% off discount window – this is a great incentive for our schools. Sharing the discount window date enables our academies to bulk purchase so they can make further savings to support their budget.
We are always provided support from ESPO and communication is regular –we always know who to contact!
We happily recommend the MAT Package to other multi-academy trusts as ESPO continues to provide value for money and reliable and friendly service, as well as a broad range of products!”
Louise Barber, Director of Operations at Discover Multi-Academy Trust
Join the thousands of schools and nurseries
budget through My School Fund
Over 1500 schools and nurseries are enjoying a boost to their budget through My School Fund. This unique fundraising initiative has already generated over £300k in card-linked rewards so far, with over £150k being awarded to participating schools and nurseries!
What makes it different?
With My School Fund, both the school/nursery and the individual benefit! When an individual shops in participating stores, they receive 2% cash back on their spend in the form of e-gift vouchers and 1% of their spend goes straight to their chosen school or nursery!
You can sign up your school/nursery for free and use a wide range of free, downloadable resources to help advertise your involvement to staff and families. The more people you get involved and linking to your school/nursery, the more funds you’ll earn.
School/nursery