We read that Partnership for Schools (PfS) the government quango that was in charge of the £55 billion Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative will be abolished by April 2012. Considering the BSF programme was scrapped in Summer 2010 this one has run for longer than many. It seems that patience finally ran out when PfS seemed serially unable to publish correct lists about which Schools would remain in the scheme and which would not.
Partnership for Schools will be replaced by a new body called the Education Funding Agency. Michael Gove is reported as feeling the decision to bin PfS would increase the transparency, accountability and efficiency of the education system. “Slimming down the number of arms length bodies will allow more resources to be directed to the front line, where it matters most,” he said.
Having seen first hand how hundreds of millions of pounds were wasted in the BSF programme including sustaining its own machinery and quangos we welcome this decision and hope that someone in Whitehall will not only take account of lessons learnt, but also implement them.
For those who are still in the programme and experiencing poorly performing systems we have created a guide to improve the performance of your ICT managed services.
