Last week almost 60 local authority officers from across Wales met as part of the CLAW Design Group led by Mike Gwyther- Jones of Cardiff County Council to discuss the opportunities and challenges offered through “template” school designs.
We’re all aware of the forward challenges facing the public sector in Wales and the wider UK. The demand for “more for less” couldn’t be more evident than in the education sector in Wales and particularly the challenges facing the Welsh Government’s C21st Schools Improvement Programme.
Melanie Godfrey from the Welsh Government opened by highlighting the high expectations facing the sector in terms of educational achievement the standards of our school buildings and tight timescales. Melanie posed a number of challenging questions to the delegates including:
- does “standardisation” equate to lower quality?
- should our design skills focus more on the interior dynamics of schools rather than the external appearance?
- should we have specific standards established in Wales for Wales?
The overriding challenge, however, was for Welsh local authorities to deliver “more for less” in term of school buildings and to consider the merits of “template” school designs to achieve this.
The theme of financial constraints was echoed again by Jane Wade, Property Client for the Vale of Glamorgan Council. Her solution? Innovation! Doing things differently! This is why she pursued a “template” design for a new £2.5m, 210 place primary school at Nant Talwg, Barry.
Top of her list was selecting a team that already had a proven track record in delivering an affordable and acceptable solution to a tight timescale. Key to this was using the skills of the whole team as early as possible. Her view? Local authority clients need to take charge of this agenda and innovate to drive cost, time and quality – rather than expecting the government to force them down a certain path.
John James of ISG stressed the benefits that came from continually improving an established product through a whole team approach – driving simplicity, consistency, and performance improvement. The collaborative approach allowed the supply chain to better manage risks, drive added value, reduce timescales and deliver cost certainty.
Finally, Simon Trew of Stride Treglown Architects, demonstrated that standardisation can still offer flexibility and creative opportunities. If anything the financial and time constraints demand far greater skills from the designer to deliver “more for less”. However, Simon highlighted how poorly managed public procurement processes can have a detrimental impact on the ability of the whole team to deliver value.
The seminar was closed by Ed Evans of Constructing Excellence in Wales. Ed reported that current data from recently completed school projects in Wales range from £10k – 21k per pupil and from £1,900 - £4,000 per square meter. These figures highlighted a whole host of issues but differences in design “standards” will be an important factor.
Ed explained that “template” school designs offered an important option to delivering greater value from the C21st Schools Programme. It should always be considered as an option from the outset. Why? It offers:
- greater cost certainty
- assured quality
- end user involvement
- community benefits
- reduced delivery programmes
The challenges for local authorities in getting “more for less” are huge but they mustn’t lose the focus on long term value. Template school designs offer opportunities to address these challenges. The expertise exists within local authority technical teams but they need to work together as one which is where all-Wales organisations like CLAW come into their own.
This event generated a huge debate which should lead to future improvements.
The next seminar planned for the summer will focus on another matter which will have a huge influence on long term value in the public – whole life costing. Watch this space
