Buying school software in England: thresholds, frameworks, specification and exit

Buying school software in England is decided less by the product than by three facts: who is buying, what the contract is worth over its whole term including VAT, and whether a DfE-approved framework already covers it. Since 1 January 2026 the threshold has been £207,720, VAT included: a school, academy trust or local authority buying software worth that much or more over the whole contract must run a procurement under the Procurement Act 2023 or buy through a framework. Below that, the Act's below-threshold rules do not apply to schools and trusts, so your own financial rules decide; DfE suggests at least three quotes up to £40,000 and an advertised process above it. For a management information system (MIS) there is a further rule: academy trusts must move MIS contracts to DfE's new MIS framework, planned for September 2027.

This guide is about England and is not legal advice; near the threshold, DfE recommends legal advice.

Buying school software: who buys, under which rules

First check whether your local authority, trust or diocese buys for you. Then find its rules:

Buyer	Rules it answers to	Below £207,720
Maintained school	The local authority's scheme for financing schools, which applies its financial rules and standing orders. DfE's statutory guidance says the scheme should not let a school seek fewer than three tenders or quotes for a contract above £10,000 a year (with listed exceptions), nor require local authority countersignature below £60,000 a year.	The Act's below-threshold part does not apply; local rules decide
Academy trust	Academy Trust Handbook 2026, paragraphs 2.25–2.30: a competitive procurement procedure, the Act's rules and thresholds, Find a Tender, DfE options considered and the decision recorded, MIS through the DfE framework	The Act's below-threshold part does not apply; the trust's policy decides
Local authority buying for schools	The Act and its contract procedure rules	From £30,000 including VAT: a below-threshold tender notice before advertising, a contract details notice after signing
Independent school	Its governors' financial rules; the Act covers bodies mainly publicly funded or overseen and not run commercially, which most independent schools are not	Its own rules

Step 1: Estimate the value of the whole contract

The Act counts the most you could expect to pay, including options to extend or renew, and VAT. One need split into several contracts is valued as one unless you have good reason, and a contract whose length cannot be estimated counts as above the threshold. DfE asks for the whole-life cost: price, VAT, maintenance, running costs and the cost of ending the service; for software, add training and data migration.

An example with the list prices of Bildena School: a trust with three primaries of 250 pupils and a secondary of 900. At €5 a pupil a year, each primary costs €1,250 and the secondary €4,500; from three schools each gets 20% off. That is €6,600 a year, or €19,800 over three years, plus VAT where it applies: far below the threshold, but in DfE's medium band, so at least three quotes. Prices are set and invoiced in euros for UK schools too (UK pricing), so a sterling budget should allow for the exchange rate.

Step 2: Choose the route

Of DfE's five routes, catalogues are for low-value goods; four remain for software:

• A framework: suppliers chosen in an earlier compliant tender; you select directly where the framework allows it, or run a mini-competition.
• At least three quotes for low and medium values.
• Your own advertised process above £40,000 but under the threshold.
• A procedure under the Act above the threshold: open or competitive flexible, with notices on the central digital platform.

For software, Get help buying for schools lists, among others, as of 11 October 2026: Education management systems (Procurement Services, until 30 June 2029), Software products & associated services (Procurement Services, until 29 February 2028, MIS included), the Software application solutions dynamic purchasing system (YPO, until 20 February 2027) and Technology products and associated services 2 (Government Commercial Agency, until 9 October 2027). The service is free: it advises, reviews your documents and can run complex procurements for you.

The MIS framework and the Core Principles

DfE's MIS framework is expected to launch on 1 September 2027. Academy trusts must use it for every MIS contract as it expires; maintained schools are expected to. Until then a trust may extend its contract by 12 months or less, or buy a new one for up to three years that includes DfE's MIS Core Principles (published 17 July 2026), among them:

• Cyber Essentials Plus and/or ISO 27001, or working towards one with completion by spring 2027;
• pricing that separates the core, optional modules and each integration;
• at most one automatic renewal, of up to 12 months, and no more than three years in all;
• no contract formed by click-through acceptance, and no click-through changes to price, scope, duration, liability or service levels;
• data held in the UK or EEA, owned by the school, with bulk exports free up to three times a year and at exit.

Where Bildena stands. Bildena is on none of these frameworks. It holds neither Cyber Essentials Plus nor ISO 27001, so it cannot confirm the first principle today. Its data is held in Germany, inside the EEA. Its standard terms renew for the chosen term and are accepted at sign-up, which the Core Principles do not accept as agreement of a contract; a buyer working to them asks for a written quote, which Bildena writes on request with the data processing agreement attached, and settles the contract terms in writing. Bildena does not produce the school census return: a state school keeps the MIS that does, and Bildena takes in pupil and staff lists from that system's Excel or CSV export — see MIS and the school census.

Step 3: Write the specification

DfE asks for a specification on every route: what you need, what it should do, how much, to what quality and by when. Talk to the people who will use and approve it, and to suppliers; whatever one supplier hears, every bidder hears. Under the Act, describe functions rather than a design or licensing model, and name a product only where you must, with equivalents allowed. A structure:

1. Background: schools, phases, today's systems and their contract end dates.
2. Volumes: pupils, staff, parent accounts, schools.
3. Requirements by job, each a must or a should: attendance, behaviour, assessment and reports, timetable and cover, letters and consents, admissions, SEND and medical, fees.
4. Statutory returns: which system produces the census, and which feeds which.
5. Integrations: each priced; one-way, two-way or through an aggregator.
6. Roles and access: who sees what, by role and school.
7. Hosting and security: data location, certificates, sign-in, backups.
8. Data protection: the documents in Step 5.
9. Implementation: pilot, migration, training, a timeline to September.
10. Service and exit: availability, support, export formats, deletion.
11. Pricing schedule: unit, count date, discounts, one-off costs, price changes, currency.

Keep the musts few: each rules out every supplier who cannot meet it.

Step 4: Award criteria and weighting

Above the threshold you award to the most advantageous tender, on criteria that relate to the contract and are clear and measurable, with a published method and their relative importance: a weighting, a ranking or a description. Below it, DfE recommends the same discipline: a score range (1 to 5, say), weights, at least two assessors agreeing a moderated score, and a written record. One possible weighting:

Criterion	Weight	How it is scored
Price over the full term	30%	Licence, implementation and training, by a published formula
Fit to the “should” requirements	30%	Points per requirement
Scripted demonstration	25%	The same tasks for every supplier, scored by the office, a teacher and a senior leader
Implementation, support and exit	15%	Migration plan, training, response times, export and deletion

A demonstration task: “A teacher rings in sick at 7.10am. Arrange the cover and tell staff and families.”

Supplier checks are separate. Under the Act they are conditions of participation — legal and financial capacity, technical ability — and must be proportionate. They may ask for experience, but not for audited accounts from a supplier not required to have them. Know this before you invite Bildena: it is new and has no references yet, and Bildena GmbH is still in formation, not yet entered in the German commercial register.

Step 5: The data processing agreement and the DPIA

An MIS holds children's data, SEND and medical information included. UK GDPR requires a written contract with the processor, including deletion or return of the data at the end, and a data protection impact assessment for high-risk processing such as special category data on a large scale. DfE's EdTech guidance says to involve your data protection officer from the start and to do the DPIA early. Ask each supplier for:

• the data processing agreement, ready to sign;
• security measures, sub-processors and where the data is held;
• retention, deletion including backups, and the breach procedure;
• whether AI features are on by default and whether your data trains a model;
• material for your DPIA and privacy notices.

Bildena's agreement is accepted at sign-up, so it covers the free month too. It is written under German law and Article 28 GDPR: ask your DPO to check it against UK GDPR before real pupil data goes in. The data protection pack (agreement, security measures, sub-processors, deletion policy, DPIA support) is sent on request and is in German today; the one-page overview is a download. The sub-processors are the hosting and, only if a school switches its AI features on, an AI provider; AI is off by default, pupils appear under pseudonyms and Google does not train models on the data. A change log records who changed what, and when.

Step 6: Run a pilot

A pilot in one school shows what a demonstration cannot: whether the office takes to the system and the data comes across cleanly. Agree first how you will judge it — say, two weeks of registers and cover run only in the new system — and test every shortlisted supplier alike. Work back from September: decide in spring, so migration and training fall before the summer. Bildena School starts with a free month: every feature, a sample school preloaded, then your own data, no card needed.

Step 7: Term, renewal and exit

DfE's contract checklist: the specification attached, a pricing schedule, service levels and KPIs, and what happens at the end. For complex, high-value or high-risk contracts, add an exit plan: what data is handed over and when, how long the supplier supports the move, and who pays. Write any extension option into the invitation to tender; without one, extending is possible only in limited cases.

Bildena's terms: a subscription renews for the chosen term and can be cancelled in the product to the end of it; price changes come at least three months ahead and never mid-term. Pupils are counted on 1 October and the year is invoiced in advance; growth above 10% brings one mid-year top-up. Subjects, teachers, classes, rooms, pupils, days and periods export as Excel or CSV, but time off, constraints and planning rules do not; timetables download as PDF or Excel reports and as aSc or Untis files. After the end, data is kept 90 days, then deleted, or earlier on request; backups last at most 14 days.

In the United States: RFPs and cooperative purchasing

US districts buy under state law and board policy. Where a federal award pays, 2 CFR 200.320 allows informal methods up to the simplified acquisition threshold ($350,000 under the FAR today, or lower if the district sets it) and requires advertised formal methods above it: sealed bids or proposals, the RFP. Section 200.318(e) encourages intergovernmental purchasing agreements and treats documented purchases through them as meeting its competition rules: the federal footing for cooperative purchasing. Bildena hosts in Germany, so check your state's student-privacy rules first (Bildena School in the US).

Frequently asked questions

Do schools have to tender for software?

Above £207,720 including VAT over the whole term, yes, unless you buy through a framework. Below it, your scheme, handbook or policy decides.

Does the threshold include VAT?

Yes. Under the Procurement Act, amounts payable under a contract include VAT.

Can an academy trust buy an MIS before the framework launches?

Yes: an extension of 12 months or less, or a new contract of up to three years with DfE's MIS Core Principles. After launch, each MIS contract moves to the framework as it expires.

Do we need a data processing agreement for a free trial?

Yes, as soon as your school's personal data goes in — a class list is enough.

---

Bildena School costs €5 per pupil a year, at least €1,000 a school, plus VAT where it applies. Try every module in the free month, first with the sample school, then with your own. For a written quote for your schools, or the data protection pack, write to info@bildena.com.