Academies Framework to double in size
26 September 2008
The National Framework to procure the design and build of Academies in local authorities which are not yet engaged with the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme will be re-procured up to a value of £4 billion when it is put out to tender early next year.
Speaking at the PPP Forum on Thursday 25 September Tim Byles, Chief Executive of Partnerships for Schools (PfS), confirmed that the process to select up to 10 national providers will begin in March 2009. The successful contractors and their supply chains will be in place and bidding for work from late October 2009 onwards.
Tim Byles said: “The considerable uptake of projects within the National Framework driven by acceleration and the success of the early procurements means we are now fast approaching the £2 billion OJEU limit of the existing National Framework. To secure the future work stream and maintain the focus on streamlined and accelerated delivery of new Academy schools, we are currently refining the details for a re-procurement exercise that will begin early next year.
“Over 50 Academies are currently being delivered through the National Framework, with the first of them due to open in September 2009. We are already seeing the value of the framework approach – both in terms of providing best value for money to the public purse and securing educational transformation for communities.
“Re-procuring the National Framework will ensure that these twin objectives, as we are now seeing in the BSF programme, continue to be translated into the new Academy schools being built.”
Local authorities that are currently engaged in the BSF programme will continue to procure academies through Local Education Partnerships (LEPs) in the same way as other educational facilities. The procurement and project management expertise which PfS already provides to the BSF programme will ensure that similar economies of scale are achieved in the Academies building programme, and that it is delivered in the most cost-effective and efficient way.
Notes to Editors:
- The National Framework supports local authorities in their role as contracting authority, providing them with national programme management, support for their local educational vision and strategy through the Strategy for Change process, a standardised delivery model offering procurement and contractual documentation, teams to provide local transaction and commercial support, and an approved list of six framework providers.
- The current framework, launched in January 2007, will continue to be operational until January 2011. The six National Framework partners, in alphabetical order, are Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Kier, Laing O'Rourke, Skanska and Wilmott Dixon. Each contractor has identified a regional supply chain for each of four regions (North, Midlands, South West and South East & London). This supply chain includes a national architect partner that will be responsible for ensuring that school designs produced by the regional teams benefit from knowledge and experience developing through the BSF and the Academies programmes.
- A notice for the re-procurement of the National Framework will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) in March 2009.
- PfS is currently engaged on 102 projects which have reached Expression of Interest stage, 48 Academies are being delivered through the BSF LEP process and 54 through the National Framework. Outline Business Cases have been approved for 19 Academy projects.
- In 2006, the responsibility for delivering new Academy schools was transferred from the DCSF to Partnerships for Schools (PfS), and in doing so, was integrated into the wider Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. As with BSF, policy ownership remains with the DCSF, who also continue to be responsible for sponsor relations in the Academies programme.
- 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 England’s state secondary schools estate during the lifetime of the programme.
- 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. PfS is a 100-strong organisation, with specialist expertise including educationalists, designers, ICT specialists, commercial managers and project management.
