64 The public debate remains polarised and concerned with whether PFI is 'a good thing'. But the time has now come to start focusing on what PFI is delivering for education, now and in the future. Because PFI attracts controversy, there is always a danger that it could be blamed for more generic problems, such as general inexperience in modern school design. Equally though, the uniqueness and cost-effectiveness of its benefits have to be proven. That is why we assessed PFI against a control group of traditionally funded schools, so that the strengths and weaknesses that relate specifically to PFI can begin to be teased out. Our results show that by the end of 2001 PFI had not yet delivered some of the most important benefits expected of it. For example, the early PFI schools in our sample were not better designed, and were not achieving efficiency savings in terms of the cost and quality of FM services. But neither was the quality of traditionally funded schools as good as it should be. Our results demonstrate that there were shortcomings that apply to all school design, regardless of the procurement route.