The only consortium owned by Further Education, providing the FE and Academies sectors with value for money contracts across the UK
The Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC) is owned by and run in the main on behalf of the Further Education Sector. The CPC operates under a Board containing four College Finance Directors, the Chair of the FE Directors of Finance Group, Peter Brewer (Managing Director of the CPC), a representative from the procurement team at the Association of Colleges, a Purchasing Advisory Group elected member of procurement staff from an institution and an institution's Principal.
The income generated from CPC collaboration will be invested into facilitating better procurement in FE institutions.
The CPC are committed to providing its members with a first class procurement service, which provides excellent value for money from contracted supplies and services.
Members have access to 578 professionally arranged contracts covering a wide range of goods and services. All contracts have a full audit history plus ultimately full cover for EU Legislation. We provide proven value for money on all arrangements.
The CPC now boasts 1127 Further Education institutions (including Academies) in its' membership, these being located in a number of different regions throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Membership is free of charge and open to a variety of different types of Further Education institutions. The only thing we ask prospective members to do is to nominate a member of staff to become the Liaison Officer between the institution and the CPC. We will give a full, free induction session to the Liaison Officer regarding duties.
The Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC) is committed to providing its approved suppliers with a first class marketing support service linked into our contract management programme. The Consortium has a genuine education focus and works on providing value for money on all contracting activities through the supplier network.
1st Jan 12
The CPC Head Office is in the Greater Manchester area but with Consortium members throughout the United Kingdom, we are seeking to recruit a CPC Representative to increase our presence in the Southern regions.
30th Nov 11
We are pleased to announce that the CPC has one placement available for a paid six month internship in web development.
30th Nov 11
It is our great pleasure to announce that two of our contracting team have successfully completed their NVQ Level 4 in Supply Chain Management.
The latest EU framework contracts which have been awarded by the CPC are as follows:
For those interested in becoming a supplier to CPC, full details of forthcoming and current tenders are available on the CPC section of the In-Tend website. Suppliers may also confirm their interest by registering on the In-Tend site.
Where our Members' annual group spend exceeds the EU threshold of £156,442 (2009 threshold), we are obliged to advertise the contract in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Details regarding existing frameworks, including supplier names and dates at which the frameworks expire, can be found in the EU Directives page.
The CPC has been asked by many Members for help in completing EMM returns in terms of what supplier savings to report.
Whilst this is an impossible task for the CPC to undertake since we cannot know what the members would have spent had the CPC contracts not been available, we can help in a limited way.
EU institutions are required to comply with EU tendering directives and it is our job, as your purchasing consortium, to fully inform our members of EU purchasing requirements and to encourage all members to fully comply with the Directives.
Part of the offering of the consortium is to tender contracts through the EU to give full cover to our members but we are aware that some members utilise quotations from our EU tendered suppliers and then offer contracts elsewhere.