BSF Schools Nationwide

[christmc]

Hi guys, Is anyone else involved in the BSF (building schools for future). We are already working on a few schools installing audio and lighting but we are looking to forge new and long relationship with other contractors nationwide.
The BSF programme is about the only sector of industry that is recieving serious investment. Anyone??

[loltolhurst]

not personally but know some suppliers that looked at it and decided the amount of paperwork / restrictions on joining the "club" wasnt worth it so good luck!

editted to say you may want to ask on here its where the state school ICT managers hang out:

www.edugeek.net

Edited by loltolhurst on Tuesday 10th March 14:21

[christmc]

Yea there certianly is a whole lot of red tape,, but hopefully now we are involved it should keep the cowboys out offering work for 20p

[tr7v8]

We've done a few of the BSF builds from an IT perspective. They are done as design & build with us & one of our cabling/network suppliers being subs.
They are fairly hardwork to be honest. The big suppliers here are RM & DiData.

[JohnP68]

Watch out for unforeseen pension liabilities if you take on ex-Local Authority employees as part of a TUPE transfer though. Can be very significant

[muppetdave]

Is there much TUPE likelihood on BSF?

Is the funder working on other BSF schemes that you might be able to tap up? Contractors are the obvious source to chase, but the funders may be the more common denominator across the UK perhaps?

[christmc]

There is not much chance of tupe issues really, we always work under the principle contractor, Balfor beatie, Willmott Dixon, Bovis, Mitie so its those type of companies im hoping to open conversation lines with.

[Mattt]

Chris,

Drop me an email, I can put you in touch with my guys.

Matt

[christmc]

Cheers Matt iv msged you

[speedchick]

The BSF program in Burnley (or it could be East lancs) was reported to have run out of money this week, 2 schools finished, and I think 2 in the middle of being built, and a couple of other still waiting.

[christmc]

Well we are onsite with all the schools in burnley bsf,, they keep reporting that the BSF program is running out of money but its poppycock. It is the only sector that is expanding and keeping thousands of jobs going. Last week the gov pledged £13billion to speed it up.

I do hate our press at times!

[Chris_w666]

If you are looking at this kind of work the government has also asked local authorities to bid for a £200million pot of cash for Co-location of services that will complement the BSF and other LA building projects.

[speedchick]

christmc said:

Well we are onsite with all the schools in burnley bsf,, they keep reporting that the BSF program is running out of money but its poppycock. It is the only sector that is expanding and keeping thousands of jobs going. Last week the gov pledged £13billion to speed it up.

I do hate our press at times!

Well thanks for clearing that up, I guess I should take the Burnley Bugle with a pinch of salt!

Did you work on my kids' school? They are at Shuttleworth, I do have to say that it's a pretty impressive building.

[Onz]

We've done quite a few schools under the BSF scheme recently and tendering for many more.

We're a sub-contractor (structural steel) so working for a main contractor; now the private sector has contracted so much, the competition for the schools is huge and we are seeing some daft prices knocking around.

[christmc]

Yes we did Shuttleworth ,Pendle vale and Burnley campus and now we are on Phase 2 and 3.

The facilities are amazing in these schools, the kids have never had so many oppourtunities both in school and extra cirricular .

So im hoping it wasnt students that keyed my car whilst parked in the car park last week lol .

[Onz]

christmc said:

So im hoping it wasnt students that keyed my car whilst parked in the car park last week lol .

I wouldn't put it past them - just had a call from a crane driver on one of our sites this morning asking us to get in touch with the Main Contractor/School as the kids are throwing stones at the crane during breaktime!

It does make you wonder whether the huge amount of money and excellent facilities most of these new schools provide are wasted on a lot of the kids.

Chris - just got your email, will reply a bit later as I've got to pop out now!

[christmc]

Ok great speak later