Councillor Maium Talukdar, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Education, Youth and Lifelong Learning introduced the last item, which discussed the commissioning of contracts in education and contract management of outsourced services.

Terry Bryan, Service Head, Pupil Access and School Sufficiency, and Ben Jeffery, PFI Monitoring Officer, provided an overview of the varying PFI contracts for 25 borough schools, due to expire in 2027 and how management will continue beyond that. Mr Bryan outlined the methods and contract terms in which public sector bodies use private finance to fund building and refurbishment projects.

Sub-committee members were informed that contracts primarily have three main elements; the output specification, methods of payment and any variations to the contract specific to a particular school,   enabling long term guarantee of service maintenance by the private contractor, rather than the council. Additional school expenses were also included, such as necessary work not initially covered in the contract, inflation impacted by the schools capital interest and contract management costs.

Ben Jeffery then outlined the current arrangements of the PFI contracts and how the council will prepare for the expiration of those contracts in 2027. Although some schools are happy with the PFI providers, others have been concerned about the duration of the repairs, performance issues, under delivery of major capital projects, regular staff changes and rising annual charges. Monthly performance meetings with the provider are conducted to identify poor service delivery, and financial penalties are issued to providers and redirected as credit to the schools where violations have occurred.

Regular consultation with schools, annual satisfaction surveys and quarterly and annual health and safety audits are conducted to ensure compliance. The customer satisfaction survey results from 2023 showed an increase in satisfaction compared to 2022.

Preparation for the expiration of contracts began in 2021 in consultation with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA), DfE and schools. Health checks have and will continue to take place, as will a gap analysis and sourcing additional funding. A working group has been established to ensure an effective termination to the contracts. Questionnaires has been sent to schools to establish if they would consider in-house provision going forward, and a working group to include schools will commence later in February to discuss the level of provision required.

Further to  questions from the sub-committee, Terry Bryan and Ben Jeffrey;

·       Acknowledged that schools unitary charges were largely impacted by rising inflation and compounded by a real term reduction in school budgets. The Council is supporting schools with rising costs by providing a contribution through its PFI reserves.

·       Noted that cross department collaboration is necessary to ensure resources are available to the children's services.

·       Clarified that the council was not aware of any instances where schools have  had to cut their PFI services due to budgetary constraints.

RESOLVED that;

1.    A breakdown on the PFI charges for all borough schools to be presented to the sub-committee for review.

2.    A brief overview of the PFI value for money contract terms and council limitations to be presented to the sub-committee for review.

3.    That the presentation be noted.