Press release: Hackney appoints selected bidder for BSF
05 October 2007
London Borough of Hackney Press Release:
London Borough of Hackney has selected the education consortium that will deliver its ambitious £167million Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.
The BSF programme has been developed by Hackney Council in partnership with The Learning Trust and will see every secondary and special needs school in the borough either refurbished or rebuilt by 2015. Each school will have state of the art IT equipment and a comprehensive facilities management process.
Of the two consortia which were short listed, Mouchel Parkman Babcock Education (mpb education) and Bouygues Partnership for Education and Community, mpb education has been chosen as the selected bidder.
Both bids were excellent, however mpb was considered most able to realise Hackney’s aspirations and further support the excellent success of its school children whose GCSE results are improving year on year.
Cllr Rita Krishna, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services said: “The selection of MPB signals the start of a new era in education for children in Hackney. mpb shares our vision for all children, as articulated in Every Child Matters, to be healthy, safe, to enjoy and achieve, to make a positive contribution and to achieve economic wellbeing. mpb puts this at the heart of the BSF programme.”
mpb Bid Director Simon Treglown said: “mpb education are delighted to have been appointed preferred bidder having enjoyed the last year of engagement with the schools. We look forward to working with the schools, the Council and the Learning Trust to design and build schools which will better places for Hackney children to learn in and in which to achieve their aspirations.”
mpb are continuing to consult with local schools in advance of the creation of the Local Education Partnership (LEP). The LEP plans to embark on Phase One of the BSF programme in Spring 2008 at Clapton Girls’ Technology College, Hackney Free and Parochial CE School and Stoke Newington School and for Media and Art.
Partnerships for Schools (PfS) is the government agency responsible for delivering the BSF programme nationally. Tim Byles, PfS Chief Executive said: ”We congratulate Hackney on nominating their selected bidder, which is great news for the national BSF programme and even better news for the school children and communities of Hackney. The new and improved buildings, facilities and technology will have an enormous impact on education and the life chances of every child in the area.”
Ends
Notes to Editors:
- The Hackney Building Schools for the Future programme is part of the national BSF programme. It will dramatically change the way we teach and learn in Hackney. The programme will also create schools that offer facilities to serve the whole community with a range of public and local services from which everyone can benefit. This will include leisure and educational facilities. For more information about the BSF programme in Hackney, please visit: www.hackney.gov.uk/xe-bsf.htm
- mpb education is a joint venture company between Mouchel Parkman and Babcock Infrastructure Services set up specifically for the Building Schools for the Future Programme. mpb education plan to embark on Phase One of the BSF programme with its supply chain. This includes Mansell, William Verry, Willmott Dixon and RM Education.
- 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 15-year lifetime of the programme.
- Partnerships for Schools (PfS) is the delivery agency for BSF. 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 the DfES) and Partnerships UK.
