BSF procurement revamped

The government has signed off a new procurement strategy for the Building Schools for the Future (BFS) programme designed to cut up to £250m from overall costs, two months from procurement time and slash bid costs by over 30%.

Education minister Jim Knight approved the changes – the results of a procurement review compiled by accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers for BSF management body Partnership for Schools (PFS) – which include measures to: reduce overall procurement time to 75 weeks from 82; reduce the number of bidders to two after 29 weeks rather than the current 44 weeks; and require only two sample schemes.

Bidders without a strong partnering history may find it harder to win work under the new rules, however. Contract Journal quoted PFS chief Tim Byles as saying: ‘If new entrants are without a record in partnering then they will have to work harder to convince us of the deliverability of their proposals.’

RIBA president Sunand Prasad believes the BSF changes don’t go far enough. Speaking to Building magazine he said: ‘We’re disappointed the opportunity has not been taken to properly streamline the process. We put forward proposals that should have been given a trial.’ Some architects have called for PFS to integrate design work into the procurement process earlier, in line with so-called ‘smart PFI.’