Building Schools for the Future : Renewing the Secondary School Estate - Twenty-seventh Report of Session 2008-09 - Report, Together with Formal Minutes, Oral and Written Evidence

The Building Schools for the Future Programme (BSF), from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (the Department), 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.

Its aim is to use capital investment in new buildings as a catalyst to improve educational outcomes.

The Department estimates that the programme will cost GBP 52- GBP 55 billion over its lifetime.

The Committee's conclusions and recommendations are as mentioned below.

The Department was over-optimistic in its original planning assumptions for BSF: of the 200 schools originally planned to be completed by December 2008, only 42 had been by that date.

The Department now expects the programme to take 18 years, with the last school completed in 2023.

Local authorities are responsible for the local delivery of BSF.

They plan, procure, and manage the BSF school buildings.

In 2004, the Department established Partnerships for Schools to manage the national delivery of the programme. The Department and Partnerships for Schools encourage local authorities to procure their schools through a Local Education Partnership.

These are 10-year partnerships to procure a flow of projects, structured as joint ventures between the local authority, a consortium of private companies that build, finance and maintain schools, and Building Schools for the Future Investments.

It is too early to conclude whether BSF will achieve its educational objectives.

To date, over-optimism has meant the programme could not live up to expectations.

Establishing Partnerships for Schools to manage the programme centrally has helped local authorities to deliver more effectively, but while Local Education Partnerships have potential advantages, their value for money is yet to be proven. And it will be very challenging to deliver all schools by 2023.

The February 2009 National Audit Office report on this topic ("HC 135", ISBN 9780102954593) is available.