Commenting on the publication of the Commons public accounts committee’s report into the Building Schools for the Future programme, South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon, a member of the committee, said:
“The aim of the Building Schools for the Future Programme (BSF) is to help pupils get better results by rebuilding or refurbishing every secondary school in the country.
“This is certainly a worthwhile goal so it’s a pity that this £55 billion programme has been untroubled by reality at nearly every stage. From the start, poor planning and persistent over-optimism created expectations for BSF that were never going to be met.
“That’s why, of the 200 schools due to have been rebuilt or refurbished by December 2008, only 42 were completed on schedule.
“If the government is now going to meet its revised target to improve every school in England by 2023, then it needs to build 250 schools a year from 2011 onwards. This is an immense challenge, but neither the Department for Children, Schools and Families nor Partnerships for Schools seems to have grasped just how much has got to be done.
“The Department must look at this scheme in the cold light of day and be honest about what can realistically be achieved before this programme slips further behind.”
Mr Bacon was speaking as the Commons public accounts committee published its report into the Building Schools for the Future programme. The Building Schools for the Future Programme (BSF) plans to renew every secondary school in the country, by rebuilding half of them, structurally remodelling 35 per cent, refurbishing 15 per cent and providing Information Communication Technology to all.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families estimates that the programme will cost £52–£55 billion over its lifetime and aims is to use this capital investment as a catalyst to improve educational outcomes. In 2004, the Department established Partnerships for Schools to manage the national delivery of the programme and invited Partnerships UK, a joint venture between the Treasury, Scottish Ministers and private companies with an interest in public-private partnerships, to provide advice and help manage Partnerships for Schools.
The report finds that the Department was over-optimistic in its original planning assumptions for BSF, creating expectations for the speed of delivery that could not be met. Of the 200 schools originally planned to be completed by December 2008, only 42 had been finished by that date. Although the Department had hoped to deliver the programme over 10–15 years, it now expects it to take 18 years, with the last school completed in 2023. The report also finds that the Department and Partnerships for Schools appear complacent about the challenge of renewing all secondary schools by 2023. Meeting this target will require the doubling of the number of schools in procurement and construction, the construction of 250 schools a year from 2011 onwards and the entry into BSF of eight or nine local authorities a year.
Current promises to increase the pace of the programme are not sufficient to meet this.
11 June 2009
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