Kicking out the jams: Academies framework

If you tried to win a place on a £4bn schools framework, you would naturally be disappointed if you failed. But now imagine that all your other workflows are dwindling and that that framework turns out to be the key to the government’s plans for education spending. Nobody would be surprised if you spent a few moments in the post room with a box of Kleenex.

So it’s fair to assume there are going to be some unhappy directors at firms such as Laing O’Rourke and Skanska, which were dropped from the academies framework this time last year. The government is planning to add rear spoilers and go-faster stripes and, the signs are, will use it as a major vehicle for education procurement (page 11).

But galling though the news may be for some, the reality is that souping up an existing deal is a welcome bit of pragmatism from the government. Rather than create an arrangement from scratch, with all the delays and consultation fees that would entail, it will be able to make a racing change.

As long as the OJEU allows for it (and hats off to those who came up with the wonderful generalities used in many recent framework notices, which can be made to apply to so many different projects), the new arrangement should be a sensible way to test whether the kinds of changes being talked about will make a difference. And they’re all good: for example, there will be fewer interviews and stakeholder meetings, and shorter questionnaires. Of course, it does make you wonder why Labour didn’t get rid of its self-defeating managerialism years ago, rather than dragging the industry, its clients and hundreds of harassed teachers through years of unnecessary bureaucracy.

Obviously, any extra trial projects will be a shot in the arm for those contractors who are on the academies framework. What’s more, speculation is rife that the framework will take on more of the primary and sixth-form projects that would previously have been delivered as one-offs or through the local education partnership model. And even though the overall spending is likely to be significantly less than the £4bn it was tendered for, as a proportion of the money that will become available it still looks like a good place to be right now.

There is also increasing interest, in the education sector and beyond, in the use that could be made of local frameworks. Deals such as the North West Construction Hub, and Nottingham-based Scape framework (which tendered for more members this week) are likely to prove valuable. These arrangements fit with the Conservatives’ localism agenda, and they are gathering increasing attention from those within procuring departments. Any firms that have missed out on them would be well advised to turn their attention away from public sector work.

Mr Whitby’s gazebo
Many people in their later years develop a fascination with gardens, and some men turn their potting sheds into a de facto second home. But Mark Whitby’s decision, at the age of 60, to launch a practice with a gazebo (page 12) has an exciting freshness about it. The former Whitbybird man’s desire to return to hands-on design, and leave the running of his business to younger partners, will no doubt resonate with many of those who’ve become marooned in senior management roles - and particularly those who have sold up to monolithic corporations. It’s a fair bet that Whitby, and Inbuilt founder David Strong, who also quit to begin a new venture, won’t be the last old faces with new business cards. And if you want to recapture the thrill of working in construction, that has to be a good thing.

Sarah Richardson, acting editor