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Terms and conditions

1. Terms of use

This page and any other web pages it links to explain the Get Help Buying for Schools (GHBS) service (“the Service”) terms of use. The Service is managed by the Department for Education (DfE).

By using any part of the Service, you are agreeing to the following terms and conditions.

In these terms and conditions:

  • Using the Service includes the use of any of the digital services on the Service website and receiving advice and guidance from our supported buying team.
  • “You” means anyone who may access the Service and the definition includes but is not limited to Schools or Trusts and/or their members of staff, agents and contractors.
  • “We” and “us” means the DfE.

Using the Get help buying for schools (GHBS) service

You agree to use the Service:

  • For lawful purposes only and subject in all respects to these terms and conditions; and
  • In a way that does not infringe the rights of, or restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of, this site by anyone else.
  • We may update the Service at any time. Changes or removal of content may happen without notice.

The Service also maintains general guidance on GOV.UK and the Find a DfE-approved framework for your school. Terms and Conditions for these parts of the Service, which are freely available in the public domain, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/help/terms-conditions.

Linking to the Service

We welcome and encourage other websites to link to the Service website.

To say your website is associated with or endorsed by DfE or another government department or agency, you must contact us for permission.

Using the service content

Most content on the service website is subject to Crown copyright protection and is published under the Open Government Licence (OGL).

Some content is exempt from the OGL – check the list of exemptions.

Departmental logos and crests are also exempt from the OGL, except when they form an integral part of a document or dataset.

If any content is not subject to Crown copyright protection or published under the OGL, we’ll usually credit the author or copyright holder. Such content may be subject to any third-party intellectual property rights which we are or may not be authorised to license under the OGL. You agree that you will determine and comply with any applicable restrictions before using such content.

For content on the service website which is published under the OGL, you can reproduce this content under the OGL, following the OGL licence conditions.

Contact us if you want to reproduce a piece of content but are not sure if it’s covered by Crown copyright or the OGL.

We make most of the content on the service website available through feeds for other websites and applications to use. The websites and applications that use our feeds aren’t our products, and they might use versions of our content that have been edited and stored for later use (‘cached’).

We do not give any guarantees, conditions or warranties about the accuracy or completeness of any content used by these products. We’re not liable for any loss or damage that may come from your use of these products.

Disclaimer

While we make every effort to keep the service up to date, we don’t provide any guarantees, conditions or warranties that the information will be: - current - secure - accurate - complete - free from bugs or viruses

Any advice given by the service shall be on a non-reliance basis. You should therefore consider getting professional or specialist advice before doing anything based on the guidance content.

We are not liable for any loss or damage that may arise from using the service or any websites linked to or from it. This includes:

  • the inability to use the service and any websites linked to or from it
  • any direct, indirect or consequential losses
  • any loss or damage caused by civil wrongs (‘tort’, including negligence, duty of care or public law duty), breach of contract or otherwise

This exclusion applies even if the loss or damage was foreseeable, arose in the normal course of things or you advised us that it might happen.

This exclusion includes but is not limited to the loss of your:

  • income or revenue
  • salary, benefits or other payments
  • business
  • profits or contracts
  • opportunity
  • anticipated savings
  • data
  • goodwill or reputation
  • tangible property
  • intangible property, including loss, corruption or damage to data or any computer system
  • wasted management or office time
  • any pure financial losses not specifically listed above

We may still be liable for:

  • death or personal injury arising from our negligence
  • fraudulent misrepresentation
  • any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law to the extent required by law
  • This disclaimer is subject to and does not affect the terms of any specific agreement between us.

Requests to remove content

You can ask for content to be removed from the service. We will do this in certain cases, e.g. if it breaches copyright laws, contains sensitive personal data or material that may be considered obscene or defamatory. We remove content at our discretion.

Contact us to ask for content to be removed. You will need to send us the web address (URL) of the content and explain why you think it should be removed. We will reply to let you know whether it will be removed.

You can still request information under the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act.

Information about you and your visits to the Service website

We collect information about you in accordance with our Privacy Notice. By using the Service, you agree to us collecting this information and confirm that any data you provide is accurate.

Virus protection

We make every effort to check and test the service website for viruses at every stage of production. You must make sure the way you use the service website does not expose you or any third party within your reasonable control to the risk of viruses, malicious computer code or other forms of interference which can damage your computer system.

We are not responsible for any loss, disruption or damage to your data or computer system that might happen when you use the Service website.

Viruses, hacking and other offences

When using the service website, you must not introduce viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or any other material that’s malicious or technologically harmful.

You must not try to gain unauthorised access to the service website, the server on which it is stored or any server, computer or database connected to it.

You must not attack the service website in any way. This includes denial-of-service attacks.

We will report any attacks or attempts to gain unauthorised access to the service website to the relevant law enforcement authorities and share information about you with them.

Governing law

These terms and conditions are governed by and must be construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.

Any dispute or claim between you and the DfE arising from, or connected with, these terms and conditions, will be first resolved by appropriate officers within DfE and your senior representatives. If such dispute is not resolved, the dispute will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

General

You may use the GOV.UK website to gain access to the service website or, in the course of using the service, to access content on a GOV.UK website. In either case, where these terms and conditions differ from similar terms and conditions applicable under the GOV.UK website these terms and conditions prevail.

There may be legal notices elsewhere on the service website that relate to how you use relevant parts of the service website.

We are not liable if we fail to comply with these terms and conditions because of circumstances beyond our reasonable control.

We might decide not to exercise or enforce any right available to us under these terms and conditions. We can always decide to exercise or enforce that right at a later date. Doing this once will not mean we automatically waive the right on any other occasion.

If any of these terms and conditions are held to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, the remaining terms and conditions will still apply.

Changes to these terms and conditions

Please check these terms and conditions regularly. We can update them at any time without notice.

You will agree to any changes if you continue to use the service after the terms and conditions have been updated.

2. Privacy policy

We collect certain information or data about you when you use the Get help buying for schools (GHBS) service (“the service”) website.

This includes:

  • questions, queries or feedback you leave, including your, name, email address and phone number, if you request access to support within the service
  • your IP address, collected anonymously
  • information on how you use the site

You will always be told when any other information is being collected, and it will only be used for the purpose you provide it for.

This information and data helps us to:

  • improve the site by monitoring how you use it
  • respond to any feedback you send us, if you’ve asked us to
  • enable you to sign into other Service applications with the same user credentials

The Service is also covered by the Privacy Notice for GHBS.

Where your data is stored

We store your data on our secure Government servers in London. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this.

Keeping your data secure

Transmitting information over the internet is generally not completely secure, and we can not guarantee the security of your data.

Any data you transmit is at your own risk.

We have procedures and security features in place to try and keep your data secure once we receive it. The Service has been through, and will periodically go through, IT Heath Checks to ensure it is following good cyber security principles and any vulnerabilities found are resolved as soon as reasonably possible.

We will not share your information with any other organisations for marketing, market research or commercial purposes, and we do not pass on your details to other websites.

Disclosing your information

We may pass on your personal information if we have a legal obligation to do so, or if we have to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements. This includes exchanging information with other government departments for legal reasons.

Your rights

You can find out what information we hold about you in accordance with applicable data protection legislation and ask us, in line with your rights under such legislation, not to use any of the information we collect.

For information about your data protection rights, please see the ‘Your data protection rights’ section of our Privacy Notice.

The Service contains links to and from other websites.

These terms and conditions only apply to this website and do not cover other services and transactions that we link to.

If you follow a link to another website from this one, read the privacy policy on that website to find out what it does with your information.

If you come to the service by following a link from another website, for example DfE Sign-In, we may receive personal information about you from the other website. You should read the privacy policy of the website you came from to find out more about this.

Last updated 5 June 2025