Minister gives green light for £250m savings through new BSF procurement process

06 May 2008

A new-look procurement process for Building Schools for the Future, which will significantly reduce costs for bidders and enable local authorities to deliver their schools sooner than previously possible, will be rolled-out before the end of the year following approval by the Minister for Schools, Jim Knight MP.

The BSF Procurement Review, the outcome of a major consultation exercise with stakeholders including local authorities, contractors, industry groups and the design community, promises savings of up to £250 million across the national programme. It will also make this part of the BSF process more timely, streamlined and efficient, reducing procurement time by up to two months.

Changes to the procurement process were broadly welcomed by members of the BSF community when preliminary findings were shared with stakeholders in February.

Schools Minister Jim Knight said: "BSF is a once-in-a-generation investment in the futures of all young people and as such it is important that we get it right. These refinements of the BSF procurement process are an important step towards delivering educational transformation of the very highest quality on time and on budget. I am confident that the life chances of millions of young people will improve thanks to these further improvements and our work with local authorities and private sector providers."

Tim Byles, Chief Executive of PfS, said: "With 13 BSF schools open across England and around half of all local authorities now engaged in the programme, the time was right for us to look at further ways to streamline our processes.

"Building on changes made to the pre-procurement  phase of BSF that have already resulted in time savings of six months, the new procurement process looks set to reduce this by a further two months.

"Overall the new process will maintain and improve competition across the programme and increase the certainty that individual projects will help deliver educational transformation. For me, this is the most important outcome of all, that young people, teachers and their communities will benefit from their new learning environments earlier than was previously possible.

"Having refined the pre-procurement and procurement phases of BSF, we will now turn our attention to Local Education Partnerships to review the effectiveness of their operation long-term."

Key changes to the procurement process which will be implemented for local authorities from Wave 5 onwards include:

• A reduction in the overall procurement time – down to 75 weeks from the current 82-week model;
• More comprehensive pre-qualification of bidding consortia;
• Two lead bidders are selected earlier in the process, after 29 weeks rather than 44 weeks in the current process;
• Time and cost savings in the design process, with sample schemes only required for two projects, and a re-focusing of time for detailed development and completion of design work;
• Integration of ICT in the BSF programme should continue as there are demonstrable benefits for building design;
• More focus on effective partnering issues throughout the procurement process.

PfS proposes to implement the review recommendations over the coming months, for authorities in Wave 5 and beyond. PfS is currently working closely with stakeholders to revise the suite of standard documentation ready for implementation in the autumn.

An Executive Summary of the report, Building Schools for the Future Procurement Review, is available here. The full report available from info@partnershipsforschools.org.uk

Notes to Editors

1. Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is the largest single schools capital investment programme for over 50 years. The aim is to rebuild or renew every one of England’s 3,500 state secondary schools during the lifetime of the programme.
2. Partnerships for Schools (PfS) is the delivery agency for Building Schools for the Future. PfS was established in April 2004 as a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), and is operated and funded under a joint venture between DCSF (formerly DfES) and Partnerships UK. 
3. PwC was commissioned by Partnerships for Schools in September 2007 to conduct the review. Workshops were in October 2007 on issues associated with design, ICT and the LEP, with additional meetings, visits to operational LEPs, and written submissions.
4. The key preliminary findings from the BSF Procurement Review were shared with stakeholders at a feedback event in London on Tuesday 5 February 2008. Following this, final refinements were made to the recommendations before it was submitted for Ministerial approval.

Media Enquiries

Amy Leonard, Communications Director, Partnerships for Schools: 07960 116966 or Nicky Old, Senior Communications Manager: 020 7273 0031.