What we changed and why
Separated content from the Gov.uk manual: Buying for Schools
The manual was trying to do too much. It was both a 'landing page', which users were pointed to by our engagement colleagues at events. It also housed content about what schools need to consider about different categories of goods before buying.
The page has been separated into 2.
Signposting page: Buying for Schools
The purpose of the page is to help users navigate to all of the resources we offer in the Schools Commercial Team (SCT). The focus of this page is the broader service offer. We'll mostly point users here, because it has the widest offering. This page will retain the existing URL because it is well used by schools looking for help with buying.
We used the Buying for schools title because:
we want to account for the wider services provided by SCT, not just the Get help buying for schools service (GHBS)
the tagline is used widely by engagement colleagues, and this has been the case historically
we want to make it easier to find any service that SCT provides, not just GHBS
the URL is well established
the SCT service and Buying for schools tagline is well established
Read the buying for schools guidance page.
Manual: Things to consider when buying specific things for schools
The purpose of this manual is to give School Buying Professionals (SBPs) the information they need about buying a particular category of goods before they proceed. The original Buying for schools page title did not fit with the content, so we changed the title. This manual was recreated to give it a new URL.
Read things to consider before you start guidance.
Added a new page about our service offer
Users did not understand our Get Help Buying for Schools (GHBS) service offer, they did not know what we were able to offer them, and they had a high expectation of what we could provide based on the offering of consultancies and our direct competitors.
We added a page to explain clearly what can be offered as it currently stands. At present, the service is new. While it aspires to provide help to every school, the reality is that there is a very small team providing the service. This means that the team needs to be selective about what help they can offer.
With this comes a complication around eligibility. Because of the way the team is structured, they can only accept cases from schools if there is capacity to do so. This means that requests are being assessed on a case-by-case basis, which means an eligibility criterion cannot be presented to users because the team needs flexibility. This allows them to help as many schools as possible.
We used the Buying for schools: Procurement specialists title because:
we want to link the Buying for Schools content together using a common partial title
we don't promote the service as GHBS, but we have ensured the words are on the page to aid search
it makes more sense to someone looking for help
GHBS is made up of more than the procurement experts, there are other products
Read about getting free help from procurement specialists.
Reworked the Procurement Buying procedures and procurement law for schools manual
Users did not think this manual was for them. The important information on routes to buying was hidden, and the manual title did not help users understand what information was being provided. We heard from users that they wanted to know what the rules are and what the different buying stages are so that they can buy compliantly. And we also heard that users need to understand the buying process.
We changed the title to Buying for Schools: How to buy for your school. We also added a new introduction and reworked the content to bring crucial content to the top.
We felt that it was important to make sure users have basic knowledge about procurement. Knowing and understanding that there's lots of different stages to buying helps to give users a realistic expectation of what comes next, and how long a procurement takes.
A lot of that information was already in this manual, but the way the content was organised was not working for users. We moved the content around so that the most important information for users is the most visible and easiest to get to.
Go to the revised how to buy what you need guidance.
Improved the Find a framework (FAF) journey
In the current journey, there is content on different pages across parts of Gov.uk and the FAF service, which means that users get different pieces of information depending on where they start their journey.
Users told us consistently that they didn't know what a framework was or why they would use one, so we knew that the current journey was not as effective as it could be.
We brought all of that content together on to Gov.uk. Having all of the information on one page will make sure that schools get the same information about frameworks, no matter which route they take into the service.
Read about framework agreements and the find a framework tool.
Focusing on the content: Our aim
The information that schools need to buy goods and services is arranged logically. They will be able to find the help that they need no matter how they enter the service.
Testing with users
We did 2 rounds of testing with users to see what they understood from reading our Buying for schools and Procurement specialists' content.
The first round gave us a lot of insight into what would likely create confusion for schools. For example, many users did not understand the tools we offer, and why they were listed on the Procurement specialist's page. We moved this content higher up onto the Buying for schools page so that users saw it before they got to the point of asking for help.
While the service wanted to promote the Procurement specialists ahead of the self-serve tools, feedback from users suggested that it did not logically fit with the way they would approach getting help.
We also significantly changed the explanation given around the tools we provide to help users understand what they do.
Because there are so many stages to buying, it can cause some confusion with users why we have created only 2 tools and why these tools specifically. This will lessen over time as we add to the service.
In the second round, the content tested well. We noted that users did not comment on the headings, but we observed that it did not cause problems for users.
Further considerations
We will be looking to add new content about Dynamic purchasing systems to these pages to reflect the current offering. This will come in the next iteration.
We are also thinking about how we track users from GOV.UK through to our service.