Building Schools for the Future Legacy Schemes
On 5 July 2010 the Secretary of State for Education announced a
review of all areas of DfE capital spending and a stop on
expenditure on the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme
until a more efficient use of resources has been determined.
Full details of the announcement can be found on the Department
for Education’s website.
How does this affect Sport England?
Our Relationship Managers in the Facilities &
Planning team currently provide advice and guidance to
LAs
around strategic planning for
community sports facilities, design guidance, the need and benefits
of developing a playing pitch strategy and protection of playing
fields policy.
We will continue to provide strategic planning advice and
support to a number of
LAs
.
The development of Playing Pitch Strategies is a key element of
this work and we will continue to advocate their development and
adoption to enable
LAs
to
plan strategically for the protection and enhancement of playing
pitch provision in their areas.
CSPs
play an
important role working through local mechanisms to advocate for
sport on school sites and are identifying sites with
facilities that are suitable to host NGB and community
clubs.
The strategic planning for community sport completed by PE and
Sport Stakeholder Groups is invaluable to the
LA
and many will want to continue this
work as there are still
BSF
projects to influence,
in anticipation of any future capital programmes and to support on
going work in the geographical area. The relationships created
through these groups and the benefits of strategic planning for
sport have proved to be worthwhile and have helped make and support
decisions, especially when tools such as Active Places, Active
People and the facility planning model are linked to a strategic
document such as a Playing Pitch Strategy.
Where
LAs
wish to
continue with this work, we will continue to support them. We, of
course, fully respect the pressures
LAs
are facing and accept that some will
suspend this work until such time as there is clarity on the
Governments future education capital programme.
A significant number of new build schools have yet to obtain
full planning permission and the Planners will continue to assess
these as part of their statutory role.
How does this affect National Governing Bodies of Sport?
A number of
NGBs
see the development of new facilities at school sites, such as
sports hall, as a key element to them driving their sport forward
and delivering against our outcomes. The work we are piloting with
a number of NGBs to secure long term access agreements to these
facilities will continue along with exploring sporting
opportunities existing with sponsored Academies.
Academies
We are aware that several of the schools who are seeking to
become an Academy this autumn have benefited from a lottery grant
either from Sport England or New Opportunities Fund under their PE
and sport programme; in addition, the Football Foundation has also
made a number of awards to school based community projects. We have
raised this with both Partnerships for Schools and the Department
for Education. We are seeking clarification on the processes
involved in transferring the land to the new Academy. This may
involve a series of novations as Sport England have funded a number
of community sports capital projects on school sites where the
applicant was the local authority who were at that point
accountable for the land.
Details of schools wanting to become academies can be found on
the Department for Education’s website.
With the change in emphasis away from
BSF
and a new Education
Capital Programme on the horizon we will assess what opportunities
this may offer community sport.
Contact Us
If you have a general enquiry about
BSF
or community sport on
school sites please email the team on bsfteam@sportengland.org .