Time taken in procurement

2.12 In its July 2004 modelling, PfS assumed procurement would take 78 weeks for the pathfinders and 60 weeks for wave 2 onwards, measured from publishing an Official Journal of the European Union notice (OJEU) to signing of contracts. So far, Local Authorities have taken on average 102 weeks to procure their private sector partners (Figure 12). This timing compares favourably to other PFI deals. School PFI deals closing between 2004 and 2006 took 108 weeks on average to procure despite being simpler to establish than a LEP; hospital deals took 164 weeks; and the rest 204 weeks.

2.13 Some projects have been delivered much quicker than the norm, and some take significantly longer:

■ Sunderland and Middlesbrough used PfS's national framework contract (paragraph 3.21) and took 52 and 47 weeks respectively. These could use the national framework because they did not use PFI.

■ Stoke took 189 weeks to procure two sets of traditional design and build contracts (each comprising 3 schools), mostly because its Children and Young Persons' Directorate was put under intervention after being deemed to be failing by the Secretary of State and the procurement was suspended.

■ Greenwich had taken 209 weeks as at December 2008 to establish its own version of a strategic partnership and had not yet finished the process for the first schools. Greenwich was a pathfinder given permission to use its own model of procurement to establish a benchmark for comparison of the LEP. It procured its strategic partner within 100 weeks and the subsequent time has been used to procure a PFI project company to deliver the first schools.

In general, use of framework contracts leads to quicker procurement of the first schools, but local issues can have a large impact on the time procurement takes.

11	Time taken to develop strategies

Source: Partnerships for School management information
NOTE Time taken to develop strategies taken from first engagement with PfS to the start of procurement. Local Authorities in Wave 1 took 53 weeks on average to complete a strategy. All Wave 1 Local Authorities have been recorded by PfS to have started their strategy in October 2004, when PfS and Local Authorities rediscussed the affordability of their projects, but these Local Authorities may have already undertaken extensive preparation work before then.

2.14 The time taken to procure a LEP is typical of procurement using competitive dialogue or negotiated procedure, the EU routes for complex procurements allowing client and bidders to negotiate during competition. PfS's guidance, based on its legal advice, tells Local Authorities to use the competitive dialogue procedure because the LEP services are complex and provide for the development of projects within exclusivity.

2.15 PfS currently estimates that average procurement times will fall to 85 weeks for Local Authorities currently in procurement and that it will take an average of 74 weeks for wave 5 Local Authorities about to begin, following changes to the procurement process recommended by PwC.4

12	Time taken to procure BSF projects compared to other recent procurement routes

Source: Partnerships for Schools management information
NOTE Time taken measured from publishing an Official Journal of the European Union notice to signing of contracts. Manchester has been omitted from the analysis as it procured its partners before entering the BSF programme. They exclude Greenwich despite it completing procurement to find a private sector partner because it has not yet established its PFI project company before December 2008.

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4 Building Schools for the Future procurement review, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, May 2008.