When you are involved in a multi-million pound project to build a new school, it is wise to be cautious and ensure that you get the best design, building and value for money. Little wonder, when you consider all the various parties involved — architects, designers, contractors, local authority officials, finance and legal teams, plus ICT providers —that the procurement process for the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme generally takes well over a year. Even so, the process has been criticised by some as being overly long and a waste of time, effort and energy.
Until recently, three bidding consortia were shortlisted, with each then spending some three to six months preparing sample schemes. But last autumn, Partnerships for Schools (PfS), the agency that manages the BSF programme, asked the consultancy, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), to conduct a review of the procurement process. PWC recommended a number of changes to help streamline the process, and last May, Jim Knight, minister for schools and learners, gave them his approval.
The changes are being implemented on new BSF projects in wave fi ve, which began in late 2007. Tim Byles, PfS chief executive, says the new system will build on changes to the pre-procurement phase, which have already resulted in a time saving of six months. The new procedure will slice another two months off the overall procurement time, reducing it from the current model of 82 weeks to 75 weeks. PfS says the changes — which include reducing the consortia shortlist from three to two —could save up to £250m across the national programme.
Other changes are a more comprehensive pre-qualification process for bidding consortia, whereby the local authority assesses a consortium's suitability to deliver the BSF project, and more focus on developing effective partnering issues throughout the procurement process. Gurmail Nizzer, BSF project director for Derby, which is developing 17 schools under the BSF programme, thinks the new procurement process is a big step in the right direction.
"It should help avoid going through a long drawn-out process. It seems to be much more streamlined and there's a greater clarity. The previous process seemed to be a little cumbersome."
Although Nizzer can see the reasoning behind reducing the shortlisted consortia from three to two, he says: "The challenge is getting the best value, and that might be more difficult when there are just two final bidders."
Some argue that even the new procurement process is too long, but Nizzer disagrees. "There's a danger that if you shrink the process too much there isn't sufficient time for due diligence and proper planning," he says.
Following the procurement process, the winning consortium forms a local education partnership (Lep) with the local authority and PfS. In May, PfS announced a review of how this arrangement was working. Once again, PWC will carry out the review, which will include an examination of the experiences to date of the existing operational Leps, looking at areas of good practice and analysing how to ensure future Leps have the skills and knowledge to hit the ground running.
PfS and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) have also been running consultation workshops, looking at the order in which local authorities not yet in the BSF programme will start on BSF projects. Interested parties have been invited to comment on topics such as the place of design in the procurement process, the interface between ICT and construction procurement, and whether multi-area local education partnerships could be created to encourage wider regeneration schemes beyond school building projects.
PfS says steps have already been taken to forge even closer relationships between various parties involved in BSF The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe) is the government's adviser on architecture and has been providing free BSF support to local authorities in a number of ways, including, assessing school designs and training school leaders.
In May, responsibility for managing the BSF contract with Cabe was transferred from the DCSF to PfS. Tim Byles at PfS says: "High-quality design helps deliver inspirational learning environments and [this move] marks a closer working relationship with Cabe."
Weblinks
Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment: cabe.org.uk
PfS: partnershipsforschools.org.uk
