With September 2026 approaching fast, the conversation around the RM6376 Supply Teachers and Education Recruitment framework has moved from awareness to urgency. Academy trusts are now required to procure supply staff through a compliant framework agreement from September 2026. The question for many trust leaders is not whether to use the framework, but which part of it actually fits how they operate.

Most of the conversation so far has focused on Lot 1. But for academies and Multi-Academy Trusts with significant or complex staffing requirements, Lot 2 is the option worth understanding properly and the one that could genuinely transform how your trust manages its workforce this year.

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What Lot 1 and Lot 2 Actually Are

To understand the difference, it helps to be clear on what both lots offer.

Lot 1 is a preferred supplier list. It is the more familiar model: an academy identifies a need, contacts an approved agency directly, and arranges the placement. It gives individual academies flexibility and control over which approved supplier they work with at any given time.

Lot 2 is a Master Vendor Managed Service. Under this model, a single approved supplier takes responsibility for coordinating all of a trust's supply and temporary staffing requirements. That supplier manages the entire process, from taking the booking and sourcing the candidate, to compliance checks, payroll, reporting, and where the primary supplier does not have the right candidate, drawing on a wider network of sub-agencies to fulfil the need.

The official framework description is direct: Lot 2 is designed primarily for larger trusts with high-volume, complex staffing requirements. If your trust is booking supply across multiple academies, managing different agencies in different regions, and spending significant time and resource on the administration of it all, Lot 2 is built for exactly that situation.

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How Lot 2 Works in Practice

When an academy within your trust needs a supply teacher or support staff, they contact the Lot 2 master vendor rather than managing multiple agencies themselves. The master vendor holds responsibility for sourcing the right candidate, confirming compliance and safeguarding checks, placing the worker, handling payroll, and providing you with consolidated reporting across all your academies.

If the master vendor cannot fill a requirement from their own candidate pool, they draw on approved sub-agencies within their network. This means your trust maintains access to a broad talent pool without having to manage relationships with multiple suppliers yourself.

Everything is tracked and reported centrally. Your trust leadership and CFO get visibility across all supply spend, all placements, and all compliance records in one place, rather than stitching together information from five different agencies in different formats.

From a procurement compliance perspective, working through a single Lot 2 supplier fulfils your framework obligation for all supply staffing across the trust in one decision, rather than requiring each academy to independently identify and contract with a Lot 1 supplier.

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The Benefits for Academies and Trusts

The case for Lot 2 is strongest where volume and complexity are highest, but the benefits extend beyond just large trusts.

Cost control and transparency. The RM6376 framework introduces capped daily agency fees, with supplier mark-ups capped at £45 per day for teachers and tutors and £38 per day for support staff. Under Lot 2, all spend flows through a single point, which makes tracking against those caps straightforward. Trusts that have historically struggled to get visibility of total agency spend across their academies find that Lot 2 resolves that problem at source.

Reduced administrative burden. Managing supply staffing across multiple academies is genuinely time-consuming. Different agencies, different invoicing formats, different compliance documentation, different rates. A Lot 2 managed service removes that fragmentation. One point of contact, one invoice format, one compliance standard, one set of reporting. For trust operations teams and academy business managers, the time saving is significant.

Compliance at scale. Under the 2026 Academy Trust Handbook, trustees carry personal accountability for compliance with the framework requirement. A Lot 2 arrangement provides a single, auditable trail of compliant procurement across all academies in the trust, which simplifies both internal reporting and any external scrutiny from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Access to a wider talent pool. Because the master vendor can draw on sub-agencies where needed, your trust is not limited to the candidate pool of a single supplier. You get the structure and accountability of a single managed relationship with access to the broader market when specialist or hard-to-fill roles arise.

Consistency of standards. Every placement made under Lot 2 is subject to the same safeguarding, vetting and compliance standards. There are no gaps where one academy in the trust has a different standard to another because they happened to use a different agency.

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When Lot 2 Is the Right Option

Lot 2 is worth serious consideration if your trust fits any of the following:

You are managing supply staffing across three or more academies and finding the administration increasingly unwieldy. Your trust spends a meaningful amount annually on supply and temporary staff and lacks clear visibility of where that money is going. You have had inconsistent safeguarding or compliance documentation from different suppliers. Your procurement team wants a single, auditable arrangement that fulfils the September 2026 mandate across the whole trust in one decision. You need specialist or hard-to-fill roles covered, including SEND, STEM or leadership, and a single agency does not always have the right candidate.

For smaller academies or trusts with simpler, more predictable supply needs, Lot 1 remains a perfectly effective route. But for trusts that recognise themselves in any of the above, Lot 2 is designed for exactly where you are.

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How Link3 Can Help

Link3 Recruitment is an approved supplier on the RM6376 framework across both Lot 1 and Lot 2. That means we can support your trust through either route, with the same compliance standards and quality of candidate across both.

If you are a trust leader or business manager trying to work out which option is right for your situation before September, we would welcome that conversation.

Get in touch with the Link3 Recruitment team today. Visit: www.link3recruitment.co.uk | Call: 0115 6972550

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Link3 Recruitment is an award-winning education recruitment agency and approved supplier on the RM6376 Supply Teachers and Education Recruitment framework across both Lot 1 and Lot 2, working with nurseries, primary schools, secondary schools, academies and Multi-Academy Trusts across the Midlands.