Wednesday 20 July 2011

New School funding for Sandwell

It transpires that Sandwell will not be getting any more of the £125 Million in money for the old BSF programme, but a new multi £billion re-build programme has also been announced.

The reasons stated are simple.

From Mr Gove’s statement to the house 19th July

In order to ensure we spent money properly I asked Sebastian James of
Dixons Store Group to review the entire DFE approach to capital funding.
 
His report makes compelling reading. I commend it to the House.
 
He found that the whole capital system was bedevilled by
 
A complex allocation process with multiple funding schemes
 
A lack of good quality building condition data
 
Inefficiency in building design
 
A lack of expertise when it came to improving new buildings
 
A failure to make procurement as efficient as possible
 
A lack of clarity on maintenance

And overly complex regulatory and planning requirements
 
See the whole statement here



he went on to say
I am also announcing that an extra £500 million of capital funding will be available this financial year for those local authorities where rising pupil numbers is putting severe pressure on school capacity. Details of how allocations will be made will be provided over the summer and finalised in the autumn.


The statement is based on an independent report on the BSF by Sebastian James

See the whole report here



Good News

We now ask the thousands of families in Sandwell to lobby their councillors and Schools so they can apply for new rebuild money from the new programme

More extracts from Mr Gove
Furthermore, I am pleased to be launching a new privately financed school building programme. This programme will focus on the school buildings in greatest need of repair.
The programme will be available to all publicly funded schools. I am determined that criticisms of the previous model for private financing must be addressed and I will only agree to projects when a series of rigorous value for money tests have been passed.
Local authorities, schools, and organisations with responsibility for schools will be able to submit applications for the programme.
Information and guidance on preparing applications will be available online. Applications can be submitted between 3 and 14 October.

Will Sandwell apply ????
We very disappointed that Sandwell has not told the parents that funding is available for rebuild programmes; we want the best for our children and teaching staff, so we can raise the educational standards in Sandwell, which allow our people to get good well paid jobs 




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