Procurement for emergencies and unforeseen events

Schools may need to engage a contractor urgently to make a school site safe after an emergency or unforeseen event.

Identifying an emergency or unforeseen event

Emergencies are sudden and unforeseen events that may result in damage to property or infrastructure at your school. Examples include earthquakes, fires or flooding.

Unforeseen events are those that create an immediate risk of injury or loss of life and require the closure of some or all of your school. An example is extensive structural damage to a building.

How to procure in an emergency or unforeseen event

Follow the steps for procurement in an emergency or unforeseen event.

  1. 1

    Contact your property advisor

    Contact your school property advisor immediately to inform them of the situation and get their verbal approval to go ahead with the emergency procurement.

    They’ll tell you if you need a procurement exemption, or if you can go ahead without one. Ask them to email you written approval.

  2. 2

    Contact a supplier

    Get a quote, estimate or rates from a supplier. This should only cover work that’s essential to address the emergency or unforeseen event.

  3. 3

    Evaluate the quote or estimate

    Check that the quote or estimate from the supplier is reasonable.

  4. 4

    Complete the work

    Work with the supplier until the situation is no longer an emergency.

After the emergency work is complete

After the emergency work has been completed, you may see more work that needs to be done. You’ll need to follow a full procurement process for this.

Procurement process for school-led property projects

Paying for repairs

Our school building insurance funding programme can pay for repairs to damaged school buildings that are Crown-owned, or partly Crown-owned with your school.

School building insurance funding programme

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