Effecting procurement transformation in Further Education….

A National Audit Office report on improving procurement in Further Education, published towards the back end of 2006, recognised that although colleges’ procurement systems were well established in terms of internal controls, they could do more to improvement procurement processes to increase savings and improve efficiency. The report looked at key steps to improve the capacity of further education colleges to make savings focusing on key areas such as e-procurement, improving the management of contracts and suppliers, sharing best practice and exploring opportunities to collaborate with others in order to gain economies of scale when buying goods and services. The Minister for Further Education, Bill Rammell, agreed that colleges needed to focus on these areas in order to make the most of their funding, and direct savings to the front line to benefit learners. With colleges needing to meet increasingly higher targets in terms of learners’ achievements, as well as the long term LSC goal of delivering a world class skills base by 2020, harnessing savings opportunities becomes vital to securing the success of the FE sector.

Encouraging pilot project to identify savings opportunities

Endorsing the findings of the NAO, in 2007, the DCSF and LSC embarked on a pilot project with 15 colleges in conjunction with Spikes Cavell, with the objective being to help the colleges analyse their spending in order to identify savings opportunities. Results to date have been very encouraging, with the pilot colleges having been able to identify some key savings opportunities in the areas of supplier rationalisation, invoice volume reduction and potential areas for collaboration.

To find out how Spikes Cavell can help your further education institution with their procurement transformation programme contact us for more information.