A STaGgering achievement

Pramod Nayak Gateshead, Project Director of Gateshead BSF, charts the successful delivery of the first joint Authority BSF scheme.

At the end of 2007, Partnerships for Schools, the agency responsible for delivering the flagship Building Schools for the Future programme, announced it had successfully closed 15 schemes that year. This appears to be a demonstration of progress finally being realised.

What may have escaped readers' attention from that announcement was that the first Joint Authority BSF Scheme has now finally been delivered – the South Tyneside and Gateshead (STaG) BSF Project. A Wave 1 circa £172m joint local authority procurement to use a single Local Education Partnership (LEP) to transform secondary schools in the Boroughs of South Tyneside and Gateshead

Does this mean that the road to getting local authorities to work together in partnership to deliver BSF has now finally been built and is open for business? Is StaG BSF a model for the market and could this provide a much-needed 'shot in the arm' to PFS' deliver... › Read more