Procurement Policy to assist remote working

General Guidance

In light of the current situation that requires  staff to work remotely, this policy has been updated  to advise staff that where there is a need to purchase incidental items such as stationery/ office consumables and small equipment such as telephone headsets and ergonomic aids you should continue to purchase these through College preferred suppliers in the first instance by contacting your departmental finance staff who either has access to the purchase order system (ICIS) or use of a departmental virtual credit card. The finance staff within your own department can then arrange for these items to be purchased and delivered direct to your home address with support from the Finance Service Centre (“the P2P help-desk”) in setting up your home address details on ICIS. For small low- value purchases of the above items (i.e. less than £100) you may as an alternative option buy these online and then submit an electronic expense claim and attach the receipt to your expense claim. Please refer to the latest finance guidance found on the Finance web-site on attaching receipts to expenses on iExpenses.

Computer Equipment

For the supply of computer equipment arrangements are now in place within ICT for their Technology Shop to supply laptops to staff where these are approved by your line manager. Similarly, where there is a need to use a larger screen connected to your laptop due to the intensity of work being undertaken at home (e.g. processing large amounts of data from College systems) then your line manager has discretion to approve the purchase of an extra screen so that it can be delivered direct to your home address via the Technology Shop. We recommend the purchase of the following screen for this purpose – HP EliteDisplay E233 Monitor- Product #: 1FH46AA#ABU. You can also obtain larger key boards from ICT if these are necessary. If you wish to order other computer equipment please contact the Technology Shop and log an ASK enquiry and provide them with the cost-centre for payment. They will then arrange for the equipment costs to be debited directly from your budget.

Please make contact with the Technology Shop via the link. 

Ergonomic Aids

There are also a small number of ergonomic aids (e.g. laptop stand) to support using computer equipment at home. These can be purchased from Posturite Ltd who are an approved College supplier.  Further details on the products can be found on the Occupational Health site through the following link and on the attached equipment list document:

Office Furniture

Seating - if a manager receives a request to supply office seating for remote working they should first refer to an existing staff workplace assessment or carry out a new assessment with the member of staff to address a health issue identified whilst working remotely. For example, if a member of staff has an existing health condition that required a suitable chair then the manager should explore the type and intensity of work the member of staff is undertaking remotely and what compensating measures if any can be followed to alleviate the problem. If the only reasonable solution is to provide an office chair to the member of staff then the manager has two options:

a)      Arrange for the office chair used by the member staff to be collected from their office and couriered to their home address if economical to do so (Greater London only); or

b)     Purchase a new office chair as detailed in the attached list of equipment for remote working at a cost of £168 and have it delivered to the home address. This cost includes carriage.

 Please refer to the Green Tomato Cars GTC price lists for courier rates in Greater London following the link. 

 Desks & Tables - with respect to desks and tables there is no justification to buy these at the present time for remote working.

Telephony and WIFI - please note this policy does not include the purchase of any new telephone landlines, WIFI or upgrade packages as the policy only allows claims for identifiable business calls via expenses. If a member of staff has a need for internet access then dongles are currently available from ICT to purchase. 

 List of Equipment - please refer to the attached list of equipment suitable for remote working.

Authorisation of Expenditure

Please note all requests to purchase any of the above items will need to be approved by your line manager and authorised departmental approver prior to purchase and noted as needed for remote working either on the purchase order and/or expense claim. 

Contacts

 Any questions on where to buy or source any particular items required for remote working not mentioned in the above purchasing note and equipment list can be directed to Andy Hitchman and his team in the Procurement department, please raise via ASK.