Crescent Purchasing Consortium

The only consortium owned by Further Education, providing the FE and Academies sectors with value for money contracts across the UK

How To Join

The CPC now boasts 1162 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.

There are a few simple steps to joining the CPC for FE institutions. Please note that if you initially prefer to speak to someone, then please contact our offices where a member of the CPC team will be able to answer any questions that you may have.

How to Apply for Membership:

  1. Download and read and the CPC Membership User Guide, fully complete the pro-forma letter and run the letter onto your institution's letterhead.

  2. Ask the Director of Finance / Head / Principal / Business Manager to sign the pro-forma letter and confirm that they accept the terms and conditions of the membership.

  3. Fax it back to the CPC Helpdesk on 0161 295 5599.

  4. We will then contact the Liaison Officer via email asking them to login to the CPC website to create an account and receive your CPC Membership ID Number.

Help For Members

View all Help Available

Documents & Policies

We provide a wide range of documents for our members such as template policies, framework guidance and National Audit Office reports.

Visits from the CPC

The CPC carries out free visits to individual member institutions to help and assist their purchasing team ...

Join the Discussion

The CPC Communicator is an email list created for use by CPC members to communicate with each other and to provide a means of support and advice from staff in a similar purchasing position.

Case Studies

  1. Southerns Office Interiors Case Studies

    Thanks to its partnership with the CPC, Southerns has completed a number of high profile projects with its members. Recently Southerns completed the supply and installation of all the furniture at both Newcastle Under Lyme and South Cheshire new build Colleges totalling in excess of £1.7m and 20,000 items.

  2. How MyPC Computer Booking System Has Been Implemented At Chesterfield College

    MyPC is a computer booking and access management solution offered by Info Technology Supply Ltd.

View All Case Studies »

Contact Us

If you are interested in your institution becoming a member or would like to find out more information about the CPC, please contact us by telephone on 0161 295 6729 or by email to cpc-finance@salford.ac.uk.

Go to our full Contact Details »

Recently Awarded Contracts

The latest EU framework contracts which have been awarded by the CPC are as follows:

Forthcoming Contracts

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.

Upcoming Events

Feb 21

iPad Inspires

Mar 14

iPad Inspires

View All Events »

EU Directives

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.

Read more about EU Directives »