Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust (BWCET) was originally established in 2011, and is an efficient and growing Multi-Academy Trust in the North East of England. BWCET is a fundamental part of the newly agreed Newcastle and Hexham Trust model and over the course of the next two years will expand from the current position of 20 academies to a total of 48 covering the west of the Diocesan region – Covering Durham, Gateshead, Northumberland and Washington.
Over a period of several months the Trust established, developed and implemented a commercial Improvement programme that has so far identified close to £500k of cashable savings for the Trust. Areas reviewed range from catering and cleaning services through to construction, paper, photocopiers, ICT connectivity as well as hardware and legal Services. The programme has helped to build the initial requirements, gain stakeholder buy-in and commitment and run Public Contract Regulations (PCR) compliant tender processes in record time to drive efficiency, service improvements and savings.