Agenda item

            The Board received a report from the Strategic Director – Children and Young People which provided a summary of progress to date in Building Schools for the Future (BSF) and Primary Capital Programme (PCP) in Halton.

            The Board was reminded that Halton’s Outline Business Case had been approved in August 2009 and the Competitive Dialogue process with bidders had then commenced. Following the evaluation of the pre-qualification questionnaires, two bidders were approved to progress to the next stage of the procurement process, Invitation to Proceed with Dialogue (IPD1). The two bidders; the Local Transformation Partnership (a consortia of Hotchief, Galliford Try and Vinci) and the Halton and Warrington Learning Partnership (led by Lang O’Rourke), both had substantial experience of delivering previous BSF Programmes.

            It was noted that the Invitation to Proceed with Dialogue was issued on 23 October 2009 and since then a number of meetings had been held with each bidder, as set out in the report.

            It was further noted that the two bidders then submitted their bids by the deadline of Monday 18 January 2010. Both bidders delivered a formal presentation of their bids on the 8 February 2010 and the evaluation of the bids would be completed and moderated by the 12 January 2010. Once the evaluation has been completed, the bidders would then progress to the next stage of Competitive Dialogue (Invitation to Proceed to Dialogue 2) from the 22 February 2010.

            The Board was informed that Halton and Warrington Borough Councils had agreed to procure a joint Local Education Partnership (LEP) to deliver both Halton and Warrington’s BSF Programme, this would ensure that both Programmes were more marketable and there were improved economies of scale reducing infrastructure costs for both Councils. In November 2009 Warrington’s Readiness to Deliver submission was approved and the formal remit meetings for Warrington would be held in February 2010. At this point, Warrington would formally enter the BSF Programme.

            The Board was also advised that three key projects which had been approved through the PCP. It had been agreed that the PCP would be combined with BSF funding to complete the all-through school at The Grange. In addition, it was also agreed that All Saints Upton in Widnes be rebuilt. Contractors were due to commence on site on the 1^st February 2010 and it was estimated that the new building would be completed and open in November 2011. A virtual walk through of the plans for the school was shown to Members along with floor plans of the design.

            Members were further advised that the final project funded through PCP was the remodelling of Our Lady Mother of the Saviour. This was a joint project with the Diocese of Shrewsbury aimed at remodelling the school to ensure that the buildings and learning could be transformed. It was estimated that this project would be complete by April/May 2011.

            Arising from Members’ comments and questions the following was noted:

·        that when designing the plans for All Saints Upton, consideration had been given to security issues and that this was reflected appropriately in the final design;

·        that the proposed joint LEP with Warrington Council provided both Councils with mutual benefits and was working well;

·        it was anticipated that over the 145 years of the programme every Primary School would see improvements as part of the PCP programme; and

·        that voluntary aided schools had the added issue of raising 10 per cent of the costs of any works.

            RESOLVED: That

(1)       the report be noted; and

(2)       the Board request a further update on BSF and PCP in September 2010.