Galliford gets first ‘quick win’ school

The contract is one of a number of 'quick win' contracts, which BSF pathfinders and Wave One schemes can let in advance of the main BSF programme.

The £20m contract has been awarded to Galliford Try by Southwark Council, which is a partner in the Greenwich, Lewisham and Southwark (GLAS) BSF pathfinder scheme. It is an extension to an existing contract with Galliford Try, and is for further renovation work to the Kingsdale School in Southwark.

A Partnerships for Schools (PfS) spokesman told CJ: "The aim of these quick win contracts is to accelerate procurement on those projects that have on-going conventional or PFI contracts.

"The quick wins will upgrade the specifications to BSF standard, avoiding the need to retrofit these schemes at a later date. They also allow local authorities to utilise existing contracts and agreements for works that will accelerate their BSF programme."

All quick win contracts will be funded from the BSF pot and will follow standardised documentation and design and construction standards. Quick win contracts will either run independently outside of local education partnerships (LEPs) or will be novated to the LEPs once they are established.

The four pathfinders are expected to be advertised in the OJEU in November. Wave One schemes will follow shortly after.

Meanwhile, PfS has pledged to have a solution to the public sector funding gap for BSF by the end of July. Local authorities report that they are struggling to find their share of the funding needed for BSF.

A PfS spokesman said: "There is an affordability gap and this is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. The Department for Education and Skills is looking carefully at the problem and needs to spend time getting it right because it will have a huge knock on effect on the whole programme. However, a solution is expected to be found by the summer recess."