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PEL members

PEL members

Procurement England Ltd (PEL) is a partnership between six higher education (HE) purchasing consortia in England, and is a vehicle to advance collaborative procurement within the HE sector. PEL’s founding members are the London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC), the North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium (NEUPC), the North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium (NWUPC), the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC), The Energy Consortium (TEC) and The University Caterers Organisation (TUCO).

Image provided by Teesside University

North east universities to benefit from £750m construction agreement

Collaborative procurement on construction for universities in the north east of England has been made easier with a £750m framework agreement, the first of its scale in the UK. Greg Barnes, who worked on the agreement for the North Eastern Universities Procurement Consortium (NEUPC), describes its benefits and lessons learned while putting it together.
SUPC

How collaboration between procurement and estates is delivering value for money

With universities spending billions on estates, the relationship between estates and procurement services is key. Three members of the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium have described how their institutions are building closer relationships between these two departments, which are delivering savings and better value for money.
SUPC

New chief for SUPC as it explores collaboration options

Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC) has appointed Simon Hill to the role of interim head in advance of a review that will examine how SUPC and London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC) can work more closely together. Hill, who has experience of change management in the private and not for profit sectors, starts in September at SUPC, which has agreed a collaboration project brief with LUPC outlining background and objectives for the review.
SUPC

SUPC takes steps to protect supply chain workers

SUPC has joined with the world-wide monitoring organisation Electronics Watch which assists public sector buyers to meet their responsibility to protect the labour rights of workers in their global electronics supply chains more effectively, and less expensively, than any single public sector buyer could accomplish on its own.
Participants in the first NEUPC CIPS induction (pic credit: NEUPC)

How can we tackle procurement skills shortages in higher education?

The higher education sector is facing difficulties in finding and recruiting procurement professionals with the right skills. NEUPC’s CEO Frank Rowell talks about how the consortium is addressing the issue.

LUPC launches new contracts database

A contracts database developed jointly by the regional higher education purchasing consortia is now live. HE Contracts replaces the previous database, uniBuy, and includes a host of new features and easier access for consortia members looking to find information about the sector’s collaborative agreements. Members can find resources and information about training on their local consortia website.

Developing a global mobility framework for higher education

The global mobility of higher education staff is an area that has traditionally been difficult for universities with responsibility split between several departments. In this blogpost, Ian Ross of the North West Universities Purchasing Consortium’s (NWUPC) describes efforts to obtain better value for money in the procurement of global mobility services.

Ensemble purchasing: mighty oaks from little acorns grow

Smaller institutions in London are joining forces to get bigger bang for their buck from procurement. Kat Humphries introduces Ensemble Purchasing, a new cost sharing group dedicated to procurement.