Aquinas College uses CPC Insurance Framework for the first time


Aquinas College


The Background

Aquinas College is a Catholic Sixth Form College with approximately 2000 students. Established in 1980, the college exists under a trust deed with the Diocese of Shrewsbury.

The College wanted to see whether any savings could be generated through the procurement of their insurance, as their incumbent broker had only tested the market periodically. Despite some initial reservations for change, the College decided to utilise the CPC Insurance framework. Using the guidance documents and templates provided by CPC, the College undertook a further competition exercise awarding the contract to independent chartered insurance brokers, Hettle Andrews. Utilising Hettle Andrews, achieved a 52% saving on their annual insurance premium for the College.


The Process

The College began to understand the potential benefits that the CPC framework could deliver following early conversations with CPC and Risk2Value (R2V), CPC’s specialist Insurance advisors. One of the initial concerns was the fact that the College was unable to include their incumbent provider as they were not part of the framework. Gary Sadler the insurance framework Contract Manager for CPC commented “unfortunately this is a position our members can often find themselves in, but what members should understand is that all our frameworks are let as per the procurement regulations and therefore are open to everyone who fits the criteria” Another potential obstacle was the College’s doubts over the savings that could potentially be generated. Debbie Blackburn, assistant Principal from Aquinas College, said “The process appears time consuming so I needed to be absolutely confident that we would achieve significant savings by using the framework. Through conversations with CPC and R2V we quickly recognised just how many Colleges have had a positive outcome. They reassured me that in all likelihood our College could make a saving too.”

Following these discussions, the College elected to use the CPC framework and began compiling the necessary information using the CPC provided templates to invite tenders. On receipt of the tender, Hettle Andrews and all other interested parties contacted the College asking whether they would facilitate a site visit. The site visits are encouraged by CPC as they are an opportunity for the providers to obtain more in-depth details concerning the existing arrangements and the level of cover required.

On award of contract under the Insurance framework for Colleges, Hettle Andrews contacted the College to arrange a further meeting. This meeting is an opportunity for the broker to visit the College premises, obtain more in-depth specifics concerning levels of cover and particulars of existing insurance arrangements, enabling them to work with the insurance industry to acquire a value for money solution for the College.

Director, Lillo Pitrolino, said: “We view this as critical to the process, because once we have completed this visit, we then meet with underwriters and ensure that the detail is relayed to the underwriting team. Having this detail allows us to expand on the figures detailed in the tender form and ensure that we obtain the best possible deal on the College’s behalf.”

Regarding supplier selection, Assistant Principal, Debbie Blackburn from Aquinas College said: “By utilising the framework award criteria we found that Hettle Andrews were offering the lowest cost and the most comprehensive cover. We have been pleased with the initial set up meetings with them and their responses to ad hoc queries etc. They appear to be proactive and supportive.”

Once the successful outcome of the tender was announced, Hettle Andrews arranged an implementation meeting to finalise the insurance cover including all aspects of the College’s insurance programme in detail, addressing any points of clarification picked up during the tender process.

Lillo Pitrolino said: “Essentially, we do not treat any two FE Colleges the same; it is important to us that a bespoke insurance programme is arranged which is what we secured for Aquinas.”


The Outcome

The College have generated a saving of over 50% on their annual premium. Over a 5-year period this will save the College around £200k.

Some of the other key benefits to the College as a result of appointing Hettle Andrews under the CPC framework are:

  • Introduction of cyber liability insurance to protect the College from risks associated with data liability and network security
  • Free legal advice on Employment and Regulatory matters
  • 24-hour emergency response team to deal with any major incident at the College

Lillo Pitrolino said: “We believe that our service capability is our key differentiator. We are an independent company with a specialist team dedicated to the Further Education sector. Our primary focus is to make life easy for our clients, whilst ensuring that they are safe in the knowledge that they have a technically correct but cost effective insurance programme in place.”

Debbie Blackburn from Aquinas College found the overall tender process through CPC straightforward and confirmed: “It takes a bit of reading at the beginning but the templates are very helpful and it was painless to communicate to all when the queries came in. The process is very straightforward and the fact that CPC & R2V were at the end of a phone is invaluable especially for something like insurance which needs some specialist input. We are really happy with the outcomes and feel that the framework is a really useful aid to the sector”


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Date published: 26th Apr 2017

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