£100m pilot for C of E schools

A £100m pilot programme to upgrade the nation's Church of England schools, using a similar form of procurement to NHS LIFT, was announced last week by Partnerships for Church of England Schools (PfCES).

The pilot programme will see a major schools building programme spanning three geographical regions.

The southern region will bundle together all church schools in the diocese of Canterbury, Guildford, Rochester and Southwark. The Midlands region will cover the diocese of Derby, Leicester, Southwell and Peterborough; and the northern region will encompass the diocese of Carlisle, Durham and Newcastle.

This first wave of privately financed church schools will see a host of new church schools being built. Very little refurbishment work will be included in the bundles.

The pilot schemes will be led by PfCES, a joint venture between Partnerships UK and the DfES (CJ 9 April).

Contractors attending the seminar last week gave a positive response to the pilot schemes. One said: "Like the LIFT schemes, they want to speed up the procurement process, which makes this a much more attractive proposition. We are definitely interested."

Another contractor told CJ: "The element of new build and the lack of refurbishment will attract a lot of interest. But not all the potential bidders will be suited to the long-term element of partnering involving the estates management of the schools."

The three pilot schemes will be advertised in the OJEC in June.

Each is estimated to be worth between £30m and £40m.