Partnerships for Schools to manage all school building programmes
16 June 2009
The DCSF has issued the following press release regarding the transfer of management and delivery of all school building and refurbishment programmes to PfS:
Partnerships for Schools (PfS) is to take over the management and delivery of all school building and refurbishment programmes from 1 October 2009, Schools Minister Vernon Coaker announced today.
PfS has already put in place strong day-to-day management of the BSF and Academies building programmes, which is rebuilding or refurbishing all secondary schools in England.
But today’s announcement means that the day-to-day delivery of the rest of the Government’s schools capital programmes will now transfer to PfS from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).
These programmes include:
- Primary Capital Programme: funding for national primary school building programme earmarked in every local authority - £1.6 billion earmarked up to 2011
- Devolved Formula Capital: funding for schools which is spent on capital projects - £1.6 billion up to 2011
- Targeted Capital Programmes: funding for a wide range of targeted projects aligned to specific policies including zero-carbon exemplar schools and school kitchens - £1.8 billion up to 2011.
The total value of the capital programmes transferring to PfS is £15.580 billion up until 2011.
It follows ministers announcement earlier this year that PfS was taking on the delivery of the £200m ‘co-location’ fund announced in last December’s Children’s Plan. Ministers last week confirmed allocations from the fund, which will see health, social and children’s services built on single sites in 101 projects around the country.
And it comes after National Audit Office concluded in February that PfS had provided strong leadership and put in place effective, skilled management to run the national BSF programme and had kept building costs under control.
Speaking today on a visit to Beaumont Leys School, a BSF school which has recently opened, six weeks ahead of schedule, in Leicester, Schools Minister Vernon Coaker said:
“Top-class school facilities, ICT, music and sports facilities are central to having a world-class education system, raising standards and inspiring young people.
“A decade ago, classrooms and facilities were in a dire state as decades of underinvestment let down generation after generation of young people and teachers. But today, hundreds of primary, secondary, academy and special schools have already or are being rebuilt or refurbished – backed by a seven-fold real terms increase in capital investment from just £700m a year in 1997 to £7.943 billion this year.
“BSF is now well established, with 86 schools benefitting from investment to date and momentum building fast so that newly revamped schools are opening, week after week, month after month – thanks to Partnerships for Schools’ management.
“Now is the time for its role to expand. It is plain common sense for all our capital programmes to now come under a single umbrella, including the Primary Capital Programme which has now started in earnest this year. Local authorities, schools and all our partners want one point of contact for all their school building work – and today’s announcement will make all our programmes more effective, efficient, streamlined and accountable.”
The changes will make delivering centrally-led school building programmes easier and more joined up with a single agency dealing with all local authorities, schools, the construction industry and private sector leading to one conversation for all stakeholders involved.
The DCSF will retain a Central Capital Unit providing policy advice to ministers that cuts across all the department’s capital programmes.
This will make it easier to put in place consistent delivery models and standards and lead to better sharing of learning and good practice across the range of capital programmes. The changes will lead to improvements in effectiveness and economies of scale by centralising skills and processes.
The announcement is part of the wider aim to transfer the management of major delivery projects from Whitehall to Government agencies, with smaller, more strategic central government departments. They also build on the Children’s Plan commitment in December 2007 to have a more joined-up and consistent approach to delivering capital programmes for all children and families services.
Partnerships for Schools Chief Executive Tim Byles said:
“For each of the last three years now, BSF has met or exceeded its delivery targets for school openings and we have worked hard to improve the processes that support the delivery of the programme – most recently introducing changes that look set to deliver savings of up to £250m.
“Our goal is to deliver inspiring learning environments for every young person in the country, whilst ensuring at the same time that every penny of taxpayers’ money is well spent. With the accelerating pace of schools opening, that goal is fast becoming a reality the length and breadth of the country.
“We welcome today’s announcement and with it, the recognition of Partnerships for Schools’ track record as an effective delivery organisation. Most recently, the all-party Public Accounts Committee acknowledged the strengths of PfS’s central management and leadership of BSF and we look forward to applying the same approach to the wider family of capital programmes that seek to improve the life chances of all young people.
“These changes represent a move towards greater join-up in the delivery of investment and we look forward to building on our relationships with local government and the private sector to achieve this to the benefit of children, parents, teachers and local communities across England.”
Notes to Editors
- Partnerships for Schools (PfS) is the delivery organisation for Building Schools for the Future. PfS was established in April 2004 as a Non Departmental PublicBody (NDPB). It is a 120-strong organisation, with specialist expertise including educationalists, designers, ICT specialists, commercial managers and project management. www.partnershipsforschools.org.uk
- To date 86 schools across England have benefited from BSF investment. 80 local authorities are currently engaged in the BSF programme.
- Beaumont Leys is one of four schools now open in Leicester as part of the city’s BSF programme. Beaumont Leys provides an inspiring learning environment for over 1,000 students and 150 staff. A centrepiece of the new school is the Inclusion Suite which increases the provision for students with Special and Additional Educational Needs (SEN & AEN) will further enhance Beaumont Leys’ reputation as a leader in re-engaging vulnerable learners. The building has also received an ‘excellent’ BREEAM rating which recognises its environmental credentials. The school’s new Managed Learning Environment, provided by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) specialists Northgate Education, will enable teachers and learners to access resources, information and applications anytime and anywhere.
