New Partnerships for Schools boss cracks whip on school work

Partnerships for Schools (PfS), which oversees the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, has signalled a move to a more collaborative regime with this week’s appointment of Tim Byles as its new chief executive.
Byles, currently head of beacon authority Norfolk County Council and chair of the Local Government Task Force on Rethinking Construction, will in November replace Richard Bowker, whose prescriptive regime is claimed to have met with increasing local authority opposition.

In the same week, PfS did a U-turn on its hard-line approach on Local Education Partnerships (LEPs), reinforcing the belief that the Department for Education and Skills is backing a more co-operative approach.

A PfS spokeswoman confirmed this week that local authorities with BSF schemes under £60m would not have to use the LEP model.

This flies in the face of guidance issued last month (CJ 2 August), which made it clear that the LEP model would be used in all but exceptional circumstances.

"Councils with very small schemes can take the £60m mark as a rule of thumb for non-LEP schemes," she said. "There is no guidance or policy on this. Schemes will be looked at on a project-by-project basis, and the threshold of £60m may change."

Byles will be welcomed as someone with considerable experience and understanding of both local government and the construction industry. Speaking exclusively to CJ, he said he welcomed the challenge of leading the BSF programmes, adding that speeding up its delivery was a priority.

He said his twin objectives were to get the early BSF schemes closed, while increasingly refining the process through learning from previous experience and through greater standardisation.

Asked if PfS would continue to insist local authorities follow the standard Local Education Partnership (LEP) model, Byles said: "I can see a strong case for LEPs being the bedrock means of moving this programme forward, but that does not mean there cannot be variations."

He added: "With my experience in local government, I understand where local authorities are coming from. What is needed is more discussion about what local and central government, as well as the private sector need to do to achieve successful outcomes."

A BSF contractor commented: "A lot of councils have been unhappy about being forced down the LEP route. Byles will have to walk a difficult line in getting local authorities back on board while ensuring they don’t all try and reinvent the wheel."