New schools of thought

Nick Maltby, Head of Commercial Projects at Bircham Dyson Bell, believes that the replacement of BFS with the Education Funding Agency has thus far raised more questions than answers.

In June the government announced that Partnerships for Schools (PfS) was to be wound up and replaced by a new body within the Department for Education, the Education Funding Agency (EFA). At the same time the government announced a programme of 100 new PFI schools, the first of which would be expected to be delivered in 2014/15 in time for the next election, giving the initiative a value of £2bn-£3bn. Information about how the EFA will function and how it will approach the new programme remains sketchy, and raises questions about what this means for localism, what the new projects will look like and will the EFA deliver?

Localism
At one level the creation of the EFA and closure of PfS show that Michael Gove believes that localism has no place in his department. Capital spending, far from being devolved, will be firmly back under departmental control. Following the James Review in April, it seems likely that the EFA will impose central solutions and standardised designs on participating local authorities in an attempt to reduce costs, the savings from which could be as much as 40% according to Wates and Capita Symonds. What this means for the government's lo... › Read more