Building schools for the future - Unison

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BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE
PFI credits to rebuild six primary schools. An additional £148 million of total capital is available to build
11 secondary schools under the BSF scheme.
Newcastle will jointly procure the six PFI primary schools and the 11 BSF secondary schools since the
council feels this will provide better value for money. The schools are a mixture of new build schemes,
refurbishment schemes and extensions to existing schools. Whether the local authority is using PFI
through a BSF programme or using PFI to procure primary schools the issues for UNISON are
identical. The branch has agreed a procurement protocol that covers all areas of contracting out of
services.
Newcastle trade unions have worked jointly with UNISON to create shared publicity on the BSF
programme and also publicise the issues of academy schools. Like many local authorities the BSF
programme has been linked to the government’s ambition to create Academy schools. The council’s
executive member for children and young people was reported saying that the council had been “under
pressure” to accept the Academy proposals. (Guardian Education supplement 1st August 2005)
London Borough of Greenwich
(Desktop research)
The London Borough of Greenwich borders the south side of the river Thames covering some 5,087
hectares. It has a population of 218,000 and employs nearly 12,000 full and part time staff. The gross
revenue expenditure of the council in 2004 was £682m.
Greenwich is one of the early pathfinder schemes for BSF. Greenwich is in the process of appointing a
Strategic Partner Organisation for the programme in order to achieve the educational vision for the
borough. Originally the Council had been looking at the development of a “trust” model as an
alternative to the LEP but subsequently Greenwich has secured agreement from the DfES to test a
‘variant procurement model’, which is an alternative method to the LEP being implemented by the other
pathfinder authorities.
The approach adopted in Greenwich will be compared to the LEP model in order to establish whether it
provides a realistic alternative that offers better value for money and more effective procurement by the
DfES and Partnerships for Schools.
A Strategic Partnering Organisation (SPO) will be appointed to develop and deliver the BSF programme.
Following an initial pre-qualification exercise, the following organisations have been shortlisted:
n 21st Century Education
n Meridian Education Partnership
n VT Education and Skills
The secondary school rebuilding programme involves building, remodeling or refurbishing 14 schools
with maintenance over a 25 year period. Some schools will also provide facilities such as libraries and
health and social care centres that can be accessed by the wider community. The first phase involves
building three new schools (Crown Woods, The John Roan and Thomas Tallis) and refurbishing and
extending two others (Eltham Hill and Plumstead Manor). It is anticipated that these schools will be
open by September 2009.
When a private sector partner is chosen, they will be “expected to facilitate the alignment of funding
streams beyond BSF and provide the means to manage integrated and co-located service provision so
that the new schools can function successfully as extended schools and a focus for the local
community” (New Local Government Network NLGN 2005)
Greenwich’s stated aim is to appoint a strategic partner in order to add to the council’s in-house
expertise and capacity and work on a wide range of investment initiatives including, but not exclusively
BSF. The partner will also be expected to manage the supply chain for works and services at each
stage of the programme. The intention is to involve local contractors in the supply chain.