We provide the bridge between users and suppliers/funders. Too often there is a misunderstanding, and the decisions made often lead to a poor use of public or other money. Getting the right decisions made by the right people, with a focus on the initial capital spend is good, but without an added focus on the real costs over the life of the building can lead to users being delighted with the result, or exasperated at the lack of forward thinking.
These should be a source of great inspiration and excitement but can also turn into a terribly time consuming drawn out saga dealing with mistakes made and allocation of blame.
We know, because we have worked on over £8Bn of capital projects, ranging from the days of PFI, through Building Schools for the Future (which we helped kick off) to Priority School Building Progamme 1, and now 2. We’ve worked on both the public and private sector side, so have a really good understanding of all the issues, often before they are recognised by others.
Our track record should be judged on the basis of final outcomes: whether it was our thinking which saved Liverpool over £30m on four new secondary schools, through to our assistance in helping a Head and leadership team manage their side of the process on creating a new one form entry primary school under Priority Schools Building Programme 1, to refurbishments of toilets through to conversions of special schools.
Working with us will also join up the building programme with the programmes of study and curricula in schools. And that’s what we believe is the real success.