Focus Academy Trust are set to save £7500 on their water bills
Focus Academy trust has taken advantage of the deregulated water market to reduce their water bills, making savings to redirect back into front line resources.
![School children](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/image_data/file/75343/s300_shutterstock_390061411__1_.jpg)
The requirement
Focus Academy Trust is a charitable multi-academy trust that was established in 2012. Encompassing over 8000 students, the trust has a thriving partnership of 11 converter and 4 sponsored academies. With the students at the heart of their practice, Focus Academy trust wanted to take advantage of the deregulated water market and reduce their water bills to optimise savings and redirect essential funds back into front line resources.
The solution
CCS developed the Water, Wastewater and Ancillary Services framework (RM3790), which allows customers to switch to a single retail provider for their billing and account management, whilst securing their retail costs for the next 2-3 years. Under this framework, CCS ran the UK’s first aggregated further competition for monthly and quarterly water billing, bringing together the requirements of multiple customers. This process increases buying leverage and promotes competition between the framework suppliers to drive down retail margins.
Focus Academy Trust joined a further 121 customers across the public sector in this aggregation and were supported by CCS throughout via timely communication updates and webinars. The EU compliant procurement was awarded to Castle Water Ltd on 4th November, allowing customers to switch supply from as early as 1st January 2018. CCS worked closely with the supplier to provide a seamless switching and account management experience during the on-boarding process.
The results
Focus Academy Trust switched 7 schools to Castle Water Ltd for monthly billing and is set to save £7500 annually on their water bills. Castle Water Ltd provided each school with a helpful welcome pack and also offers dedicated customer service and account management. Focus Academy Trust found the aggregation process to be a positive experience, from joining to the receipt of the first monthly bill.
Allison Simpson, Project Manager from Focus Academy Trust commented:
“Overall managed process for 7 sites - efficiently communicated and straightforward changeover”