Council selects preferred bidder for Building Schools for the Future programme
Released: Thursday January 28, 2010
Wolverhampton City Council Leader Neville Patten today (Thursday January 28, 2010) announced that inspiredspaces had been appointed Preferred Bidder to deliver the council’s £370million Building Schools for the Future Programme.
This ends a 12 month procurement process in which Environments for Learning and inspiredspaces have each developed detailed proposals to deliver the programme.
inspiredspaces will join the city council and Partnerships for Schools, via Building Schools for the Future Investments (BSFI), to establish a Local Education partnership (LEP) which will be charged with delivering the programme.
The LEP will rebuild and remodel all 26 Wolverhampton schools who serve secondary aged pupils. The first four are Highfields Science Specialist School co-located with Pennfields Special School (Private Finance Initiative new build) and Kings C of E School co-located with Tettenhall Wood Special School (remodelled).
Councillor Patten said: “This is a significant day for the city. I want to congratulate inspiredspaces on being appointed as Preferred Bidder for our BSF Programme.
We have been fortunate in having two extremely good bidders to work with, each of whom have a proven track record of success.
However inspiredspaces has convinced us that it has the vision, determination and capacity to work with us to rebuild or refurbish all of our schools in a way that will make a significant difference to teaching, learning and the future prosperity of our city. They have demonstrated the capacity to meet the council’s ambitious plans to ensure that all 26 schools are transformed by 2014.
This is the biggest investment in our schools for well over a generation. Reaching this point is excellent news for the young people, teachers and local communities of Wolverhampton”, he added.
Councillor Gill Fellows, Cabinet Member for Schools said: “Today’s announcement that inspiredspaces is the Preferred Bidder for Wolverhampton’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme follows almost a year of hard work and rigorous assessment.
Wolverhampton City Council put together an extremely challenging and thorough process that has, we believe, secured a very strong partner for the city, for our schools and future generations of school children”, she said.
Tim Byles, Chief Executive of Partnerships for Schools, the Government organisation responsible for delivering the national BSF programme said: “I am pleased that Wolverhampton City Council has appointed a selected bidder for its BSF project. This is an important milestone and means that the council can progress with its plans to design and refurbish the area’s schools which will benefit the lives of not only school pupils but local communities as a whole.
With 146 schools and over 125,000 pupils benefiting from BSF investment across the country, I look forward to similar work taking place in Wolverhampton to offer pupils the best start in life.”
Last night’s Cabinet (Wednesday January 27, 2010) agreed a recommendation to appoint inspiredspaces as Preferred Bidder. A formal recommendation will be made to full Council on Wednesday February 3 and it is anticipated that work will start on the first projects during the summer.
Additional information
inspiredspaces is a company set up by Carillion and its joint venture partners to deliver educational transformation through the government’s Building Schools for the Future programme. inspiredspaces is already working with a number of local authorities to deliver BSF programmes - including South Tyneside Council, Gateshead Council, Nottingham City Council and Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council.
The approval of the council’s BSF Outline Business Case in February 2009, by Partnership for Schools (PfS), the Government agency who have responsibility to deliver the BSF programme, and Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), provided Wolverhampton’s BSF project with permission to proceed to procure a partner to develop the Local Education Partnership (LEP).
The ‘Competitive Dialogue’ (“dialogue”) procurement process has been carried out under European contract procedures and guidance, supported by PfS, who have developed standard documentation for all aspects of the BSF procurement, ranging from procurement documents to the contracts that underpin both the long-term partnership with the LEP (strategic partnering and shareholders agreements) and the delivery of the buildings on site (whether PFI or Design and Build ) and services (whether Facilities Management or ICT).
The contract notice was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) which invited private sector companies / consortia to bid to become the selected private sector partner for the Wolverhampton BSF Programme. Initial assessments of the companies were carried out resulting in two consortia ‘Invited to Participate in Dialogue’ (the ITPD stage of procurement) in March 2009.
The notice resulted in interest from two bidders, Environments for Learning and inspiredspaces.
Issued by the press office.