Transparency data
Department for Education data
Updated 24 May 2013
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| Project name | Building Schools for the Future (BSF) | Priority School Building Programme |
|---|---|---|
| Department | DfE | DfE |
| MPA RAG rating (A Delivery Confidence Assessment of the project at a fixed point in time, using a five-point scale, Red – Amber/Red – Amber – Amber/Green – Green; definitions in the MPA Annual Report) | Amber/Green | Amber |
| Description / aims | Building Schools for the Future (BSF) was conceived as a long-term programme of investment and change in England to help transform education for 3.3 million students aged 11-19. Although originally planned as a 15–20 year programme, it was announced by the Secretary of State for Education on 5 July 2010 that only projects that had achieved OBC approval by 1 January 2010 would continue. The BSF programme was designed to enhance the learning opportunities of young people by providing new or substantially refurbished facilities capable of delivering a 21st century curriculum. The programme also sought to: • provide teachers with 21st century work places; • provide a step-change in the level of information and communications technology (ICT) provision; • deliver the investment as efficiently as possible, through a standard procurement and delivery approach – the local education partnership (LEP). Since the decision was taken to allow only those projects beyond OBC by 1 January 2010 to continue, an exercise was undertaken in late 2010 to identify savings from the remaining programme. C.£250m was duly identified as efficiencies. | On 24 May, the Secretary of State confirmed that the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) would rebuild, or meet the condition needs of 261 schools. The majority of these schools will be delivered using an improved privately financed model. 42 schools of these schools – those in the very worst condition and all special schools included within the programme – will be taken forward using capital grant. Four specific objectives have been set: • to prioritise schools (primary/secondary/sixth form) for rebuilding via a privately financed solution (accepting that a privately financed solution requires those schools to pass a value for money test); • to build more for less; • to improve the future private finance model drawing on learning and experience from recent Building Schools for the Future (BSF) PFI deals, the HM Treasury review of operational PFI contracts, and Public Accounts Committee recommendations in response to the National Audit Office report; and • to use a centralised procurement model for the first group in the programme in order to drive efficiencies in procurement time and ensure that a quality solution is obtained at the lowest cost. |
| Departmental narrative, actions on Delivery Confidence Assessment | EFA Capital continues to monitor the delivery of the remaining BSF schemes by Local Authorities. There are approximately 20 schemes requiring further approvals by EFA, using the New Projects Approval Process (no procurements are extant). The existing BSF processes are well known and create no specific concerns for the final delivery of the remaining school schemes. | Where requests have been received to expand schools, work is progressing to review these requests, to secure the additional funding and to undertake statutory consultations. Work has commenced with all the schools identified for delivery using capital grant and these will be delivered using the EFA Contractors' Framework. Work will commence with a third batch of privately financed schools prior to the end of the calendar year as planned. The process to appoint funding advisers to develop the private finance funding approach has commenced. |
| Project - start date | 12/07/2011 | 19/07/2011 |
| Project - end date | 02/07/2017 | 01/08/2044 |
| Departmental narrative on schedule, including any deviation from planned schedule | The BSF programme is approaching its end, with remaining schemes programmed and no procurements necessary to execute the rest of the pipeline. Delivery by LAs continues to be scrutinised by EFA Capital, with regular contact with the project teams in each LA responsible for ultimate delivery. The remaining schemes are all programmed out, with a final outlier school due to open in 2017, subject to the LA confirming the pupil place planning requirement for this scheme. | The Project Start Date is 19 July 2011 when the invitation to apply for the Priority School Building Programme was issued. The programme will be delivered by grouping schools together into “batches”. The process to group the schools has taken into account a number of factors including condition, geography and commercial viability. This will drive a healthy competition for the work which will deliver value for money for the public purse. As far as possible, the needs of the schools in the worst condition will be addressed first. This is a significant programme of rebuilding and it will be delivered over a number of years. The EFA has written to all schools and applicants to confirm when initial engagement with them will start. The Project End Date is 1 August 2044 which is the end of the 25 year concession period for the last batch of schools. |
| 2012/13 Budget (£million) | 677 | 4.5 |
| 2012/13 Forecast (£million) | 677 | 4.58 |
| Total budgeted whole life costs (£million) (including non-government costs) | 6302 | 397 |
| Departmental narrative on budget/forecast variance for 2012/13 (if variance is more than 5%) | Not set | Not set |
| Departmental narrative on budgeted whole life costs | Local authorities are the contracting party for both traditionally funded and PFI schemes in the BSF programme. Responsibility for the whole life costs of these contractual arrangements remains theirs. We provide revenue funding for the relevant element of the Unitary Charge, which assists the meet the ongoing revenue costs of hard and reactive maintenance, and lifecycle costs. These costs are, however, fixed and stable in relation to the Department's own spending profile. | The whole life cost figures contain only the capital programme, as announced in May 2012, and excludes the revenue payments for private finance projects. |