The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme will see every state secondary school in England – around 3,500 in total – rebuilt or remodelled over the lifetime of the programme.

Launched by the Department for Education & Skills in February 2004, BSF is the largest and most ambitious scheme of its kind anywhere in the world. It will transform education for some 3.3 million students aged 11-19.

The scale of BSF enables local authorities to move from patch and mend spending on schools to rebuild and renewal, with a more strategic approach to funding, design, procurement and management of buildings.

BSF is not just a building programme: The programme aims to create learning environments which inspire all young people to unlock hidden talents and reach their full potential; provide teachers with 21st century work places; and provide access to facilities which can be used by all members of the local community.

Funding: On average £2.5-£3 billion of capital investment is being spent on the programme each year. The Comprehensive Spending Review settlement for 2008-11 gives £9.3 billion for the BSF programme over three years.

Sustainability: The BSF programme is committed to reducing carbon emissions from schools, with all buildings making the most of sustainable features to help protect the environment and reduce overheads. In some schools students can monitor the amount of energy consumed, rainwater is used to flush toilets, and recycled materials are used for construction.

Design: BSF schools are helping to reduce bullying and other anti-social behaviours through the use of good quality, thoughtful design. Wider corridors and toilet blocks located near to classrooms and staff rooms allow these areas to be ‘passively’ supervised.
More about Design in BSF...

ICT: Technology plays a key role in helping to achieve educational transformation in BSF schools. BSF provides a high level of capital funding for ICT – equivalent to £1,675 per pupil place.
More about ICT in BSF...

Consultation: Students, teachers, parents and members of the local community are all encouraged to have a say in the design of their school under BSF. In addition to public consultation, many students have already had an opportunity to take part in design workshops with architects and contractors.
More about the stakeholders in BSF...

Further information 

For information on the progress of BSF projects, see the BSF progress report, which is updated monthly.

Partnerships for Schools and 4ps, the local government advisers on procurement, have published An introduction to Building Schools for the Future, a useful step-by-step guide to the processes of BSF. This can be downloaded using the links on the right of this page.

Programme reviews

In 2005, the DCSF asked PricewaterhouseCoopers to carry out an independent evaluation of Building Schools for the Future. The main aims of the work were to evaluate the impact of BSF investment on educational achievement and to learn early lessons to inform the programme's development. The results of this evaluation - the first Annual Report of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the supporting Technical Report, and the Literature Review - are available to download from Teachernet.

In August 2007, the Education & Skills Select Committee published its report entitled Sustainable Schools: Are we building schools for the future? The full Select Committee report, the Government's response to the report, and PfS' response to the report are available to download.