Published
By Toby Belshaw
Amidst an exciting few weeks at CPC, Managing Director, Darren Lowe has shared his thoughts on some key topics, including the first CPC Supplier Excellence Awards, the work of Crescent Consultancy and our newest Great Place to Work® accreditation.
CPC Supplier Excellence Awards
In a matter of days, Crescent Purchasing Consortium will be hosting the inaugural CPC Supplier Excellence Awards at the Hilton Manchester Deansgate - and it promises to be an extravaganza of an event!
We’ve developed these awards to celebrate outstanding performance, innovation and collaboration among our valued suppliers, celebrating the amazing contribution these organisations bring to the table in supporting our 10,000+ members and the education sector as a whole.
Our high-profile judges were inundated with entries and all the finalist organisations have driven quality, service, competitiveness, sustainability, diversity and equality through incredible collaboration and leadership.
I’m really looking forward to meeting those attending the event and CPC is proud to celebrate those who have gone above and beyond to deliver exceptional value for money, quality and customer service for our member community - all while considering their social and sustainable impact as an organisation.
Thank you for your support of this event and best of luck to everyone nominated.
Our ‘Giving Back’ charity is what makes CPC truly unique - it makes the hairs on the back of neck stand up when you know you are making a difference through the work you do each day.
Each year, CPC's Board of Trustees reviews the level of reserves our charity has and any surpluses are reinvested back into the education sector via the 'Giving Back' initiative.
To date, over £1.56 million has been designated for reinvestment in the form of various projects, with the largest amount being used specifically for awarding non-refundable grants to CPC members.
In this Euros summer, I’m delighted to see how the students at The City of Liverpool College benefitted from recent ‘Giving Back’ funding to put on a football tournament for all and how our business is helping to support the education sector with initiatives such as this, which might even help discover the next Ella Toone or Harry Kane.
As I mentioned in the previous edition of our CPC Members' Newsletter, Crescent Consultancy can deliver a managed procurement service for institutions, supporting the delivery of your procurement goals - this service has been making an impact across the education sector since 2008!
The managed procurement service is delivered by a team of procurement specialists, managed by experienced procurement professionals and trained/upskilled by our in-house Learning & Development Lead, Mark Pearson.
We currently have customers from MATs, FE colleges and HE institutions and our subsidiary company, Tenet Procurement Services, through which we are even supporting the housing sector, using the same model.
Procurement is our core business and, as we approach the school holiday season (and, of course, prepare for the changes coming in October 2024), there has never been a better time to speak to the team at CPC and find out how Crescent Consultancy can support your journey.
If you have interest in learning more, don’t hesitate to drop me a message via LinkedIn or contact the CPC team.
At the end of June, we received news of another accreditation from Great Place to Work® UK, this time, for wellbeing. CPC is now ranked #87 in the top 100 medium-sized companies deemed a Best Workplace for Wellbeing™ and this follows a number of different awards we’ve received this year.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank our incredible team at CPC, whose anonymous feedback emphasised how our benefits contribute to our excellence as an employer.
This, of course, also contributes to our vision of being your procurement partner of choice!