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Building Schools for the Future
Report of meeting with at DFES on Friday 24th September 2004 Present: Rory Kennedy - Schools Capital policy Team/BSF Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is intended to be a 15 year programme to modernise or replace the existing stock of secondary schools. It is not open to primary schools. Middle deemed secondary schools thus fall within the scope of the scheme and refurbishment, replacement or building of middle deemed secondary schools can form part of LEA proposals. All local authorities have submitted proposals and this has enabled the DFES to estimate the scale of the funding that will be required as well as the balance between new build and refurbishment (to be about 50/50). Proposals are allocated in annual waves according to two criteria alone - degree of deprivation, measured by proportion of free school meals, and low rates of achievement demonstrated by 5 A*-C at GCSE. The first wave has already been announced and the next two waves should be announced in the autumn 2004. Other authorities will be given indications of their likely wave but guarantees cannot be given beyond the end of the current spending review. If, in a large authority, there are say proposals grouped into four geographically distinct areas these four areas would be prioritised separately. Local authorities may, then, have already submitted proposals that involve reorganisation from three to two tier. However the proposals may be in wave 10 - depending on FSM and GCSE indicators. In eight or nine years time when their wave of funding becomes available BSF expects that the passage of time will mean that these plans will need to be reconsidered. They would, anyway, be subject to public consultation and the normal processes leading to a decision by the local School Organisation Committee. Proposals from authorities forming the current wave will be scrutinised carefully according to the government's priorities and the authority's capacity to deliver. A business plan has to be submitted for agreement at this stage. Proposals are therefore likely to be amended or altered as a result of this process and following the process of local consultation that must accompany any reorganisations. Initial proposals from authorities are confidential as they contain commercially sensitive information, but the business plans should be open. The government's priorities are set out in BSF Education Vision Policy Guidance (March 2004) available at the following link: www.teachernet.gov.uk/docbank/index.cfm?id=6519 There are a number of issues that arise:
All PFI funded projects will now fall within BSF and there will be a balance of conventional and PFI funding. Conventional funding is perhaps more appropriate to smaller refurbishment projects. The timetable for the decision making for the "current" wave is set out in LEP Model overview available at:
Officers in Northumberland have been claiming that BSF funding will only be available if they reorganise from three tier to two tier. This is not true - as can be seen from the above. Indeed an authority could come forward with a well thought out proposal for a new three tier system and gain funding. It is true, however, that BSF is the main route for any capital funding.
www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/resourcesfinanceandbuilding/funding/bsf/ Nigel Wyatt |