PAG Presents arrives, RAAC webinar now confirmed

As our Procurement Advisory Group (PAG) meetings continue around the United Kingdom, we were pleased to recently provide the first of our PAG Presents webinars, which focused on the topic of spend analysis - while the next session will cover the hot topic of RAAC concrete in buildings.

Serving as regional hubs of best practice and knowledge, while growing their respective communities, our original PAG meetings have been a long-running offering from the CPC to education stakeholders and we have seen a surge in attendance for these events, which welcome new members across the sector.

The overall increase in demand of late has been encouraging and has led us to start offering themed PAG Presents webinars in addition, on a monthly basis.

PAG Presents will cover a specialist subject each month, facilitated by our procurement experts and guest speakers from our supply chain of 1,300 suppliers.

This initial edition of PAG Presents was hosted by Mr. Mark Pearson, co-chair of the Northwest PAG and a procurement consultant under the Tenet Education Services banner, who brought his 30+ years of procurement experience to the table (with the last 12 of these having been devoted to the wider public sector).

Kicking off a series of webinar discussions, the spend analysis session on Tuesday 14th November was presented to highlight management data at attendees' fingertips and inform stakeholders how spend analysis is the second of two key weapons in the procurement armoury, alongside the contract register/database.

Established in 2010, our regular PAG meetings play a useful role in facilitating communication and collaboration between CPC and our members, with regional representatives encouraged to bring ideas and discussion points to the PAGs, where best practice guidance and further support is also welcomed and shared.

Serving as both a general and specialist support network for your local area, PAG meetings for Wales and English regions of London, the South West, the East, the North East, the Midlands, Yorkshire & Humberside and the North West have all been held in recent weeks, with attendees also able to join sessions online.

PAGs are provided on a free of charge basis, with CPC members keen to learn more about how they can benefit from these networking and knowledge-pooling meetings encouraged to contact their Regional Procurement Advisor (RPA), or get in touch via our dedicated learning wing, CPL Learning, who can also advise.

The regional PAGs often encompass workshops on key procurement areas, making attendance a potentially priceless choice for procurement professionals, be they managers, tenured officers or newcomers to the field, with finance directors and estates managers among those who might additionally benefit from them.

Points raised in PAG meetings may meanwhile be presented to the CPC Board, thus enabling a route to possibly influence future CPC decision-making/policy.

Keep an eye on our PAG section, as well as our channels at LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) for any details on upcoming Procurement Advisory Group events.

The next edition of PAG Presents will be on Wednesday 17th January at 10am, held in partnership with Academy Estates.

The webinar topic will be 'RAAC - What is it and what should you do?' and you can register your attendance via this link.

CPC members will also be able to view recordings of past PAG Presents via our site, with the first available below. 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T-5vxV7-jWc?si=Y6CWJBrm7DATXXbc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>