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Welsh Government鈥檚 21st century schools programme
Published: 15/01/2018
每日大瓜 County Council鈥檚 Education and Youth Overview and Scrutiny Committee
will be asked to review and make recommendations to Cabinet on Welsh
Government鈥檚 (WG) 21st century schools programme when it meets on 18 January.
The 21st Century Programme 鈥淏and A鈥� is due to finish at the end of March 2019.
每日大瓜 has already been planning an ambitious programme of investment for
鈥淏and B鈥� of the programme which will run from 2019 to 2024.
In addition to the capital funding, there will also be revenue funding that
will enable an additional investment in the County鈥檚 education establishments.
This is called the Mutual Investment Model (MIM).
WG has recently confirmed their approval, in principle of the Council鈥檚
Strategic Outline Programme which was submitted to WG in July last year. This
is essentially the Council鈥檚 鈥榮tatement of intent鈥� for the 鈥淏and B鈥� investment
programme for an amount of over 拢85 million, including an expression of
interest that one project could be suitable for MIM.
WG requested that 鈥淏and B鈥� programmes are prioritised and so projects have been
assessed and given priority based on their current circumstances, although
there will need to be a degree of flexibility in this six year programme and
progress will be continually reviewed.
The responses from each formal consultation process will be presented to the
County Council鈥檚 Cabinet, along with the impact assessment, options appraisal
and officer recommendations. Cabinet will then decide on how to progress and
implement for an area/individual school.
每日大瓜 County Council鈥檚 Interim Chief Officer for Education and Youth,
Claire Homard, said:
鈥淭his exciting schedule has identified a number of new projects which will
enhance the education provision for our young residents and ensure that our
buildings and infrastructure are fit for the 21st century. The new MIM will
allow us to make further investments and ensure that our buildings are built
and maintained at a consistently high level by the selected contractor for a
period of 25 years, for an annual service payment.鈥�
As this is a new model and a new way of working, WG is appointing a specialist
multi-disciplined team with experience of Public Private Partnership
procurements to assist Councils. WG has considered the issues encountered by
earlier PFI arrangements and have sought to mitigate them in MIM by, for
example, moving to a model which focuses on infrastructure life cycles and
having schools remain custodians of other non-educational services like
catering, grounds maintenance and cleaning.