CPC MD commentary on community

CPC is a community provider to individuals, educational establishments and stakeholders who have a passion to improve procurement within the education sector and help with the challenges of SEND, wellbeing and absenteeism.
 
Many years ago, I was working at Oldham College when the Finance Director received an invite to meet the newly-formed CPC. I was their nominated delegate and I truly believe that meeting changed the course of my career. I returned to Oldham having met with the small CPC team (one of which was Peter Brewer) and i immediately bought into what they wanted to achieve. I knew the college would benefit from being a member and I volunteered to be the lead.
 
The vision that Peter had all those years ago was to build a community of likeminded individuals who would work together using economies of scale, combining spend across multiple organisations to gain the interest of the supply chain, drive down prices and increase quality. Compliance with the procurement regulations was not fully understood in the further education sector back in those days, but that too was important to Crescent Purchasing Consortium.

The membership of CPC has grown to more than 10,000 and maintaining an engaged community has become increasingly difficult, but our team work both proactively and innovatively to deliver the objectives of our charity, to improve procurement across the education sector and advance education on the subject.
 
I firmly believe that CPC is a leading provider of procurement support that is inclusive to the whole of the education sector.

Our five-year plan has a key goal to achieve 15,000 members by July 2027. I am hopeful we will achieve this ambition and go beyond in the years to follow.

Community is friendship between different people or groups, and a sense of having something in common

This year, I want to put a focus on strengthening the CPC community. I want existing members to embrace the benefits of membership. I want to work with the Department for Education to help signpost the benefits of CPC membership to schools and academies and I want every employee of CPC to feel empowered to represent CPC with pride, delivering the outstanding procurement service that is part of our mission statement.
 
2025 has a ring to it. It sounds like a landmark year. So, my invite to every education establishment is to utilise, even maximise, the benefits CPC provide. Membership benefits include 80+ purchasing frameworks, procurement advice, guidance, training and introduction to our consultancy services. I am unaware of any other offer which will match that offered by CPC for free.

Together, let's build a strong community that wants to improve procurement within your organisation and across the sector - and, in addition, let's help to support SEND and wellbeing causes, while tackling absenteeism nationwide, via Giving Back.