Lessons learned added to this page in July 2008 appear in bold.

Key lessons learned include:

When developing the Strategy for Change:

• ensure that the local authority's strategic vision aligns with the individual schools' visions
• consider all the possible options for the school estate, from campus schools to Academies. Changing plans later can potentially cause delays to the scheme.
• keep in mind that a scheme needs to be attractive to the market in order to get the best bids
• Keep the focus on educational transformation, integrated ICT and high-quality sustainable design

Invest sufficient time and resources: Spending sufficient time and resources into developing your Strategy for Change (SfC) in conjunction with key stakeholders is absolutely essential.

Involve all key internal policy area leads when developing your SfC: When addressing broader areas such as Children's Integrated Services, extended schools or community access, engage the full range of stakeholders.

BSF for school improvement: Make sure that the BSF strategy is being developed by a range of local authority officers including those from School Improvement and policy area leads.

Needs of parents and pupils: Champion the needs of parents and pupils, and be clear about how the local authority will fulfil them: by ensuring inclusion for children with SEN, schools that are open longer, facilities that are available to parents, etc.

Develop the programme documents with a clear focus on required outcomes: Ensure that in developing your strategies and procurement documentation, a focus is maintained on the key outcomes that are to be achieved through BSF.

Consider how your statements on the required outcomes for the project will be translated by the market and how they can be turned into reality.

Change management: Make sure that there is a clear, fully resourced programme of support for change management in schools so that school staff are able to make full use of the new learning environments.

The change management plan should help support the delivery of the expected outcomes for ICT.

School vision = teaching and learning aspirations: Ensure that the schools' SfCs reflect their aspirations for teaching and learning, and that the plans for ICT relate to these in a way that will support completions of the ICT output specification.

Learn from others who have already embarked on BSF: Speak to people who have been through the process, utilise their experience and potentially specific template documents already produced (school SfC, ICT in D&B, affordability, PPM etc.) to assist in developing your own scheme.

Engaging with the market: To ensure the success of the project you should engage with the bidding market early and often. It is important to discuss your proposed scheme with your PfS project director, who can help you start a diaolgue with the market to ensure that you will be able to attract good market interest when you enter procurement. Details of active bidders and their supply chains are available from this website, on the What about me? Private sector page.

ICT

Conduct an ICT review: Becta's ICT self-review framework allows schools to assess their current use of ICT, benchmark it against best practice, and create an action plan for improvement through BSF.

Personalised learning: Be clear how you are going to achieve this, and how it will work in practice. It is too easy to say 'improved technology', and not give concrete examples.

Issue resolution: Address any concerns and tensions over managed ICT services upfront.

Timing: Can ICT be delivered earlier than the building, or even across the local authority? Start the transformation ASAP.

ICT is not just for transforming education: staff workload and administration can be reduced with intelligent IT systems.

Market testing: Conduct separate soft market testing for ICT

Design & Sustainability

Sustainability must be embedded in BSF: Buildings and their long-term, whole-life maintenance must demonstrate sustainability, from recycling facilities through to energy efficiency.