Their own payment-practices filing · gov.uk
Prospects Services pays suppliers in 17 days on average — inside its 30-day stated terms
Their H1 2026 filing puts the average 13 days inside their stated 30-day term.
- Their stated terms
- 30 days
- Paid outside agreed terms
- 5% of invoices
- Paid after 61+ days
- 2%
- Reporting period
- 1 Sept 2025 – 28 Feb 2026
- Source
- their gov.uk filing, filed 22 Jul 2026
Self-reported figures from their statutory filing. How this is compiled.
Terms vs reality · their H1 2026 filing
Paid 13 days inside the 30-day term they state
Where their invoices landed · share of all invoices
The pattern · last 6 of 11 reports
30 → 17 days — getting faster
The read · computed from their figures
Prospects Services's H1 2026 filing puts their average at 17 days against stated terms of 30 days; 5% of invoices were paid outside agreed terms and 2% took 61 days or longer. Filed 22 Jul 2026.
The direction is faster: from 30 days in H1 2023 to 17 now — 13 days faster across their last 6 reports.
On the latest reported averages: Faster than 82% of the 309 large companies reporting in education.
That is 11 statutory periods on record (earliest H1 2019) — a historical record, not a promise for a new invoice.
In their own words · from the filing
Standard payment terms
Our standard supplier payment terms are 30 days, however we have a number of suppliers in our supply chain whom we pay earlier (but still contracted at 30 days terms).
Dispute resolution
Prospects Services (part of the Shaw Trust Group) reserves the right to only pay for goods and services for which it is entirely satisfied. Prospects Services reserves the right to withhold payment of a disputed amount pending a resolution. In the case of a dispute, the expectation is that it can be resolved amicably with direct conversations and negotiations between the Prospects Services member of staff who commissioned the work and the supplier. If this is not possible and the supplier feels he is still entitled to payment (and subject to the requirements stated above having been adhered to) then the following dispute resolution process is recommended - Stage 1 The supplier puts in writing to Shaw Trust’s Head of Procurement the details of the dispute. The Head of Procurement
Every statutory report on record
Most recent first.
| Period | Avg days | Outside terms | 61+ days | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H1 2026 | 17 | 5% | 2% | 22 Jul 2026 |
| H1 2025 | 17 | 5% | 1% | 22 Jul 2026 |
| H1 2024 | 13 | 2% | 1% | 11 Oct 2024 |
| H1 2024 | 17 | 7% | 3% | 11 Oct 2024 |
| H1 2023 | 16 | 5% | 1% | 11 Oct 2024 |
| H1 2023 | 30 | 3% | 1% | 11 Oct 2024 |
| H1 2022 | 12 | 2% | 1% | 11 Oct 2024 |
| H1 2022 | 12 | 4% | 1% | 11 Oct 2024 |
| H1 2021 | 14 | 3% | 1% | 11 Oct 2024 |
| H1 2021 | 18 | 7% | 3% | 11 Oct 2024 |
| H1 2019 | 10 | 12% | 3% | 29 Mar 2019 |
On the public register · Companies House
Company record
- Status
- Active
- Type
- Private Unlimited Company
- Incorporated
- 30 Mar 1995
- Registered office
- BLACK COUNTRY HOUSE, OLDBURY, B69 2DG
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More large companies in education
Priory Education Services Limited · Qa Limited · Prior Park Educational Trust · Qahe (Ur) Limited · Pontefract Academies Trust · Qahe Limited
How UK payment reporting works
What is a Payment Practices Report?
What does "paid outside agreed terms" mean?
How often is this data updated?
Is this official government data?
How this is compiled. Built from official records only: Companies House and the gov.uk payment-practices service. The payment figures are self-reported — companies over the size threshold must file them by law and the board signs them off. No credit-agency data. The numbers are theirs; the plain-English read is ours. This is information compiled from public records under the Open Government Licence v3.0 — not a credit rating and not advice.
The 31-day comparison figure is the median across 6,104 companies with a current statutory report — every sector pooled, not an average of sector medians (how the figure is built).
Report PL-03042176 · latest period to 28 Feb 2026
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