(Even) bigger role for Partnerships for Schools

Partnerships for Schools (PfS), the agency responsible for delivering BSF, is to take responsibility for all of the English Government’s schools capital programmes. This means that PfS will take over the management of the Primary Capital Programme (£1.6bn), Devolved Formula Capital (£1.6bn) and Targeted Capital Programmes (£1.8bn). The transfer of responsibility from the Department for Children Schools and Families takes place on 1 October 2009.

Effectively PfS now has oversight of all strategic investment in the fabric of England’s schools, which makes PfS Chief Executive, Tim Byles, one of the most influential men in education. It’s a very strong endorsement of PfS, clearly indicating the DCSF’s approval of the way Byles’ team has been rolling out the BSF programme. Byles’ quote in the press release announcing the change sets out his rationale for why PfS are the right people for the job:

For each of the last three years now, BSF has met or exceeded its delivery targets for school openings and we have worked hard to improve the processes that support the delivery of the programme – most recently introducing changes that look set to deliver savings of up to £250m.