Evaluating Vendors For Partnership Success in Schools

The number one question a school needs to ask when engaging a vendor, entering into a partnership, or paying for a service, is what the return on investment will be. This extends beyond financial considerations; all aspects of impact must be taken into account, encompassing both short-term gains and long-term sustainability. 

External vendors play a crucial role in the smooth running of schools from safeguarding systems and recruitment platforms to staff wellbeing providers and professional learning consultants. The need extends beyond the classroom, with HR and Operations teams increasingly relying on external partners for compliance tools, payroll systems, and even crisis planning support. These partnerships can bring major value if chosen and reviewed with care.

There are some key questions and criteria school teams can ask to help their team choose the best options for their learning ecosystem. 

In schools, there are often many requests from multiple stakeholders, and let's face it, budgets are limited, so how do you choose which initiative, project, or vendor will best suit your organisation's needs?

Below are five criteria and reflective questions to consider asking of your current and prospective vendors. 

Start With The End In Mind

• What do we hope to achieve? By when? Or, what challenge are we trying to solve? How do we know?

  • Be as specific as possible. What data has been collected to understand what the need is? What is already in place? Why is/isn't that working?

• What do we need to do to get there? 

  • Consider and ask the range of stakeholders, their skill sets, and the support they need, and how much time, resources, and support are available to achieve the outcomes. What else do they need?

• How will we know it has an impact in the short, mid, and long term?

  • How and when will the intervention, support, or program be evaluated? Who will collect,collate and share the data? Who will make decisions about the evaluation and ongoing partnership? 

Exploring Options

Once the pathway has been identified, start canvassing potential vendors using criteria that are relevant for your context. Applying criteria and questions to current and new vendors helps school administration teams make informed and thoughtful decisions that can anticipate greater return on investment, both in the short and long term.  

Potential key criteria and reflective questions school teams may ask themselves and their vendors to ensure a strong partnership are:

Professional Profile and Alignment with Strategic Goal

• Does this vendor’s offer align with our school's mission, vision, and current improvement priorities?

• What is the professional reputation of the vendor/ support tool/ program in the education sector?

• Will this partnership directly support students’ learning outcomes or staff capacity-building?

• Is there sufficient evidence for the value add of this vendor’s work?

Contextual and Cultural Relevance

• How adaptable is the vendor's approach to local curriculum, systems, learner profiles and cultural contexts? Can they show examples?

• How do they ensure their services are respectful of and responsive to local cultures and communities? How do they balance global and local perspectives?

• What steps will they take to understand and respond to the specific priorities of the school?

Accessibility

• Are the services available in multiple formats (e.g., online, face-to-face, hybrid), languages, and time zones (if necessary)?

• How do they cater to diverse user needs?

Sustainability

• In what ways do the services help the school or educators become more self-reliant rather than dependent on ongoing support?

• Is there a ‘train the trainer’ model or resource handover included to support sustainability? If so, which internal staff are likely to best engage with this?

• Will there be opportunities for collaboration or co-design with the school team?

• Does this vendor see the school as a partner, or just a client?

Risk and Cost-Benefit

• Is this vendor offering something that can’t be done internally (sometimes there is the talent but not the time), or bringing in new ideas, tools, or practices?

• Can they provide measurable outcomes, references, and evaluation data from past partnerships?

• Are they willing to put you in touch with recent previous clients?

• What is the total cost of this partnership, financially, time-wise, and in staff resourcing?

Be Strategic

Schools that  maximise their resources move more quickly  towards their end goals. By having a clear destination, using a clear set of criteria and reflective questions, which are addressed to a range of potential vendors, schools can have greater assurance of maximum return on investment. Whichever partner you choose, they should understand your context, co-design the journey and ‘fix’ with your team, and contribute to solutions that add to the reputation of the school.