Partnerships for Schools



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Partnerships for Schools
33 Greycoat Street
London SW1P 2QF

Press Releases

Press Releases

New appointments strengthen senior team at PfS

28 July 2008

Partnerships for Schools (PfS) has announced two additions to its management team, including a new Operations Director role created to provide extra capacity at a senior level as the national Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme gains momentum.

Sal Wilson has been appointed as Operations Director, moving from her previous role as PfS’s Regional Operations Director for the Southern region. In her new role she will be responsible for managing the delivery of the programme in three regions: North, South, and Central & West.

Harry Scarff will take up the role of Regional Operations Director for the Southern region, moving from his previous post as a Project Director in the Southern team where he has worked on BSF projects in Lambeth, Lewisham and Westminster, and played a national role around Close of Dialogue. He will be one of three Regional Operations Directors, reporting to Sal Wilson, who between them oversee the work of individual Project Directors working with local authorities and private sector partners across England.

Tim Byles, Chief Executive of PfS, said: “These two appointments, along with the addition of our first Directors of Corporate Resources and Design, bring significant experience, knowledge and dynamism to our leadership team at a time when the pace of delivery and change is increasing. 

“Both the Operations Director and Regional Operations Director posts are a sign of our commitment to developing strong working relationships with all stakeholders to make BSF a success.  The significant experience and expertise of BSF gained by Sal Wilson and Harry Scarff in their previous roles will no doubt prove valuable to all our colleagues in the BSF community.”

Notes to Editors:

  1. Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is the largest single schools capital investment programme for over 50 years. BSF will provide world-class teaching and learning environments for all pupils, teachers and communities in England.
  2. There are now 13 BSF schools schools open nationwide: Bristol Metropolitan College, Bristol (April 08); Ifield School, Kent (March 08); Michael Tippett  School, Lambeth (Feb 08); Sandon High School, Stoke (Feb 08); Birches Head, Stoke (Oct 07); Elmgreen School, Lambeth (Sept 07); Bristol Brunel Academy (Sept 07); Sixth Form, Haringey (Sept 07); Oxclose Community School, Sunderland (June 07); Chaucer Business and Enterprise College, Sheffield (Oct 06); Bamburgh School, STaG  (Oct 06); All Saints College, Newcastle (Sept 06); and Forest Oak and Merstone Schools (May 06).
  3. 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.
  4. Sal Wilson has been involved in BSF since 2003 ahead of its formal launch, including the early development of the standard documentation. She is an experienced government sector programme/project manager, and for the last 10 years has been particularly focused on delivering Public Private Partnership (PPP) procurement projects, predominately in the education sector. Her early career was in social care and therapeutic work with children and young people. This led her into local authority management and, later, corporate policy development and project implementation at senior level. Major projects included the 1997 Local Government Reorganisation in East Sussex County Council when the Brighton & Hove Unitary Authority was formed.
  5. Harry Scarff joined PfS in April 2005 as a Project Director. Prior to joining PfS he worked in consultancy, as partner of a building surveying practice, then head of a nationwide building consultancy, before becoming Divisional Director with an international construction consultancy. Here he spent over 10 years working with Public and Private Sector clients on a diverse range of PPP accommodation projects including education, healthcare, MoD, offices, housing and prisons, both in the UK and overseas. He is a qualified chartered building surveyor, and holds postgraduate qualifications in building conservation.
  6. Mairi Johnson, currently Interim Director of the Enabling Programme at CABE, was appointed as Director of Design this month. See http://www.partnershipsforschools.org.uk/media/press/pr_2008-07-14-DesignDirector.jsp for more details.
  7. Simon Wiles joined PfS in June 2008 as Director of Corporate Resources. Prior to joining PfS Simon was Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive of the City of York Council, where he was responsible for Finance, IT, Property and public and customer services.
  8. For more information about the PfS Senior Management Team see: http://www.partnershipsforschools.org.uk/about/structure.jsp