Building Schools for the Future

Our mix of experience on BSF schemes - as advisors for Local Education Authorities or as part of bidding teams – brings benefits to all BSF projects, especially in creating 21st century learning environments for secondary school studentsBuilding Schools for the Future (BSF) is the UK government’s biggest single investment in improving school buildings for over 50 years, introduced as part of its commitment to devolved funds for Local Education Authorities (LEAs).

BSF, backed by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), aims to rebuild or renew every secondary school in England over a 10-15 year period. Worth £ 2.2 billion in its first year alone, BSF involves investment in both buildings and Information Communications Technology (ICT). For some schools BSF will enable refurbishment of existing facilities, in other cases completely new schools will be created.

To assist local education authorities (LEAs) and other project participants in BSF, the government has established Partnerships for Schools. This has standardised much of the procurement and commercial process and provides a source of experienced commercial facilitators to work with LEAs and engage with the private sector. Under three frameworks with Partnerships for Schools we’re providing technical advisory, project management and education-related services to several LEAs on BSF schemes. We’re also working in bidding consortia on several other BSF projects. This mix of working as advisors for LEAs and as part of bidding teams gives us a depth of insight and knowledge of procurement that we can bring to the benefit of all projects.

For all BSF schemes we offer the advantage of a fully integrated, one-stop in-house team including specialists experienced in educational, strategic and cost consultancy, engineering design and construction, project management and operations manage-ment for education facilities and services. Our whole team has detailed knowledge of DfES guidelines and standards, CABE recommendations, the 4P’s schools procurement pack, OGC guidance and Prince 2 project management methodologies. We are well aware of the implications presented by current guidelines and regulations (eg acoustics, sustainability, daylight requirements, energy targets et al) and have wide-ranging experience of developing innovative solutions to satisfy these requirements.

At Mott MacDonald we’ve been entrusted with numerous education schemes through a variety of procurement routes, providing a bespoke service to meet individual project requirements. Our approach is one of partnering with LEAs to ensure that the needs and contributions of all stakeholders are understood and addressed in full to deliver the projects on time and within budget – drawing on our experience of successfully delivering strong and dynamic consultancy and management roles within a culture of teamwork.