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Oldham’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme will rebuild, refurbish or remodel all of the borough’s secondary schools between now and 2014.
How does BSF work?
The UK has never seen a project like BSF before. It's the first time ever that we have had a system in place to address our secondary school buildings in a systematic manner.
Our aim is to look at the state of the secondary estate for the borough in its entirety, and this presents us with a huge challenge.
We have to look at the condition and sustainability of every building. We then have to consider a number of issues which are:
We have to think about 'future proofing' to ensure our schools will serve us well for the next 25 years. The Government asks us to submit a plan that addresses all these things at once. We then go through a process that will see us design and build the schools in the way Oldham wants them to be.
A very useful introduction to the process is provided by Partnerships for Schools on its website.
BSF stages
There are eight formal stages to the BSF process which are outlined by the Government. These are:
Stage 0 - Preparing for BSF
Stage 1 - Project initiation
Stage 2 - Strategic planning
Stage 3 — Business case development
Stage 4 - Procurement planning
Stage 5 - Procurement
Stage 6 - Contractual close
Stage 7 - Construction
Stage 8 - Operation
Oldham entered stage 4 in May 2009, when we received approval of our Outline Business Case from the Government.
You can find out more about what each of these stages are about by visiting the Government’s BSF website.