BSFBlog

May Gurney's new, final designs for Melior Community College and Brumby Engineering College were on public display for the first time on Monday and Tuesday of this week in the College Halls. This was can opportunity for parents, pupils, College staff and the College's wider  communities to see the final designs, examine 3D models, view presentations first hand and gain an understanding of the design and building process involved.

 On hand to support the process, explain more about the design process and to answer questions, were each College Principal, College Senior Staff, the Design Team from May Gurney Ltd, John Galbraith the BSF Manager and myself.

 The 2-4 hour sessions were based on an informal drop-in basis and were well attended at both Colleges. This was a great opportunity to share the individual College designs with a range of different College Stakeholders and was a great success for both Colleges.

 This event which launched the final designs to the wider College Communities begins the next process of transforming these exciting and innovative designs to actual real transformational College buildings. We are now at a different phase of our BSF Strategy, next is to submit these designs to the North Lincolnshire Planning Committee, then lets bring on the builders!!!

 Regards

Kevin

Following the recent BSF Project Board, Cabinet Member for Children's Services, Councillor Tony Gosling, has announced May Gurney Ltd as its preferred bidder to deliver North Lincolnshire's £88m Building Schools for the Future investment, which will transform seven urban Secondary Schools in Scunthorpe.

The next imminent stage, following the Acatel Period, will be the submission of the Sample School's Designs to North Lincs. Planning Committee. This will be closely followed by the BSF Core Team working on the Final Business Case for submission and ratification by Partnership for Schools and the Government.

Building work is expected to start in the Summer Term 2009 on Melior Community College and Brumby Engineering College, the two Sample Schools. The Design Process on the remaining four Wave 3 BSF Secondary Schools, St Bedes, Mathematics and Computing College, Frederick Gough Language College, FTC Performing Arts and Technology College and the St Lawrence Academy will begin in late summer 2009.

We are at a benchmark point in North Lincs Wave 3 BSF Strategy with the appointment of May Gurney as the Preferred Bidder and we will now move forward in a very practical manner to transform our Schools.

Exciting and challenging times for all participants, I'll keep you updated.

Regards

Kevin

Good evening Bloggers

 It's been a long BSF Procurement Journey but we are on the eve of penultimate day of Final Bid Evaluation. The overall evaluation has been completed by the BSF Core Team Chairs, Sub-group School Representatives and Internal and External Consultants and their collaborative outcomes have now been collated. These were reviewed at the BSF Evaluation Panel and a full Evaluation Report was commissioned.

Tomorrow is the big day! Ade Williamson, the BSF Director will report these evaluation outcomes to the Project Board Members tomorrow afternoon at their meeting at Pittwood House. The principal outcome of this meeting will be a decision by the Cabinet Member for Children's Services, Councillor Tony Gosling, to appoint the Preferred Bidder.

I'll be in touch soon with further details

Regards

Kevin

 Good morning Bloggers

Late Friday evening, January 30th, the BSF Core Team in collaboration with P4S finally closed the Procurement Process with the two remaining Bid Teams, Generation Education NL and May Gurney.

Following an individual Bid Clarification discussion on Monday February 2nd, both Bid Teams were invited to submit their Final Bids by midday Monday February 9th. I am pleased to report that both submitted their Final Bids and these were officially opened and accepted.

We had over 30 boxes of submitted Bid hard copies arrive at the BSF Base.  Each Bid Team had to submit a hard Master Copy, a hard Working Copy and an E copy of their entire Bid. The initial stages of the evaluation involved the BSF Core Group Chairs, supported by some external Consultants completing a Compliance Check on the Working Copy and the Master Copy from each Bid Team. A similar Compliance Check was made on the E copy too. This lengthy but necessary task was made to ensure consistency and to meet our statutory and legal obligations.

Once completed, E copies of both Bids were loaded onto our specialized Evaluation Software and working in parallel with the hard Working Copy the evaluation period began in earnest. This period of evaluation of both Bids, by the BSF Core Team, Consultants and School Sub-group Members, will continue throughout the remainder of February and into mid-March.

Ade Williamson, the BSF Director will report the evaluation outcomes to the Project Board towards the latter end of March and a decision by the Cabinet Member for Children's Services, Councilor Tony Gosling, will be made to appoint the Preferred Bidder. Once this has been announced, followed by a period of official scrutiny, the Preferred Bidder will be working in collaboration with the BSF Core Team and P4S towards submission of their final Business Case in early June, followed by the official Financial Close.

The Wave 3 BSF Procurement Journey has been ongoing since October 2007 and is now drawing to its close with the selection of Preferred Bidder and ultimately the formation of the LEP and delivery of the current BSF Wave 3 Strategy.

I hope that this brings you up to date on our current position and I will keep you informed on further progress over the next few months. 

Regards
Kevin

Good Morning Bloggers

Great news on the future of BSF in North Lincolnshire, as well as the BSF Core Team working on the Wave 3 Procurement Process, they have been working on a BSF Wave 7 submission to bring our 7 rural Secondary schools into the BSF Strategy.

We have recognized that Building Schools for the Future is a once in a lifetime opportunity to revolutionize secondary schools in North Lincolnshire. Schools will be transformed through a combination of complete rebuilds and partial rebuilds and will deliver the most up to date education for young people in North Lincolnshire.

If the bid is successful it will provide around an additional £100m to transform secondary schools in rural areas and complete our overall educational transformation agenda.

As part of this additional development process, the council will be hosting consultation meetings with members of the public at the seven rural Secondary Schools in the near future. These will offer more information about how BSF funding can transform schools, and give members of the public the chance to put their views forward.

North Lincolnshire Senior Officers will be leading these Meetings at the following schools from 6.30pm on the following dates : 

Huntcliff School - 27 January
Vale of Ancholme - 29 January
North Axholme - 2 February
Baysgarth - 4 February
Sir John Nelthorpe - 11 February
Winterton Comprehensive - 24 February
South Axholme - 26 February

Comments can also be submitted in writing by 6 March 2009. Comments should be sent to:

BSF Project Team
Normanby Gateway
Lysaghts Way
Scunthorpe
DN15 9Y

Once the council has completed the consultation, it will consider all views before making a decision. This information will also form part of the final bid which will be submitted to the government in late Spring 2009.

This is another exciting stage in our BSF Journey and I will keep you informed as we progress it.

Regards

Kevin.