Revised national programme for Building Schools for the Future (BSF)

February 2009

This page includes information on the indicative reprioritisation of Building Schools for the Future (BSF) based on the revised expressions of interest provided in November 2008 by all authorities with projects in waves 7 to 15 of BSF.

The DCSF remains committed to its aims for BSF to provide 21st-century teaching and learning facilities for all secondary pupils and staff in England. This programme has wide support across government including from the Prime Minister, who emphasised its importance and his Government's commitment to keeping it properly funded and on track despite the economic climate, in his evidence to the Liaison Committee on 12 February 2009. Ministers have emphasised that reviews of the programme, including the PVP review, are not aimed at curtailing BSF but rightly will ensure that taxpayers get value for money from this major investment.

Sally Brooks has written to Directors of Children's Services and other relevant bodies informing them that this indicative prioritisation of BSF is now available. This letter is available here.

The revised national programme has been prioritised in line with the methodology set out in the guidance on revising expressions of interest we issued in September 2008.

Authorities' projects are prioritised in a series of lists available here:

initial projects for authorities who have not yet started in BSF
first follow-on projects for all authorities, including those which have already started in BSF
second follow-on projects for all authorities
third follow-on projects for all authorities
fourth follow-on projects for all authorities
fifth follow-on projects for all authorities
largest authorities with more than six projects in total.

The prioritisation on these lists is only preliminary, and the actual order in which projects are started in BSF will take into account a range of other factors. In the interests of good project management and maintaining momentum of delivery, projects will not be started where they cannot demonstrate readiness to deliver. In addition, some larger authorities need a manageable spread of work over the whole programme, and some authorities have indicated that they do not want an early start. Consideration will also be given to situations where authorities already in the programme need a further tranche of work to maintain momentum.

Authorities with more than two projects were given flexibility to determine in which order they wish their follow-on projects to be addressed. This prioritisation is reflected in which list projects have been placed, although we have not identified projects individually.

Within each list, indicative prioritisation is strictly in line with the methodology set out in our guidance, on the average social and educational need of the schools in the project. Detailed information on this is available here.

Ministers wish to start all authorities into BSF as soon as is practicable, although the factors discussed above will also be taken into account when starting projects. In time, it is expected that all projects on the 'first follow-on projects' list to be given the opportunity to start before any projects on the 'second follow-on projects' list, and so on.

Published: 02 March 2009