Architect Marks Barfield is forming a consortium to win Building Schools for the Future work amid concerns that small practices are being forced out of the programme.

The consortium also includes Buschow Henley Architects and Bennetts Associates Architects as well as structural engineers Max Fordham and Alan Conisbee and Associates.

Under the working name “The Design Consortium”, the team will bid for work in the £2.2bn BSF programme for this year.

Many small practices on the 11-strong exemplar design list claim the BSF procurement process is flawed. They say work is not filtering through to the smaller practices because the process is tailored to suit larger firms with more resources, which can easily handle the bundles of three or more schools.

The consortium has drawn up a shortlist of contractors and will approach them in the new year.