Lancashire County Council has come under fire over the cost of kitting out classrooms under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme. At a meeting last month, head teachers told councillors they could source the same essential items - including desks, chairs and laptops - for a fraction of the cost of buying them though the BSF contract. Under the terms of the deal, schools are paying as much as £24 for a chair. But school bosses claim identical chairs are available from the same supplier for only £9 each through the Lancashire Purchasing Agency, through which non-BSF schools buy their equipment. Lancashire selected Catalyst Lend Lease as its BSF partner, and subsidiaries of Catalyst are responsible for managing the schools over the course of the 25-year contract. This includes sourcing, maintaining and replacing furniture and equipment, supplying and managing ICT services and facilities management.
Seven of Lancashire's 83 secondary schools currently come under the BSF programme. Council officials are now investigating whether they are getting best value from the BSF programme and will present their findings to the Lancashire Association of Secondary School Head Teachers on 9 November. In addition to the initial price of equipment, the contract includes costs (which are calculated and paid for annually) to cover the regular replacement of items regardless of condition. A head teacher of one of the seven schools in the BSF programme said one of Catalyst's subsidiaries quoted £3,500 for curtains, plus additional annual charges to cover replacing them in seven years time.
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