Building Schools for the Future

Government Announcement

On 5 July 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 along with a list of schools by local authority (LA) affected by the announcement can be found on the Department for Education’s at: http://www.education.gov.uk/news/news/bsf-review

How does this affect Sport England?

Our Relationship Managers - Facilities & Planning currently provide pre entry advice to LAs (seeking to enter BSF ) 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 as part of their core services facilitate and on occasions chair PE and Sport Stakeholder groups (PESSG). Their role is to represent the voice of community sport and NGBs.

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 at http://www.education.gov.uk/academies/schools-registering-interest

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 please email the team on bsfteam@sportengland.org .Alternatively if you would like specific help from a team member, they can be contacted as follows: