BFE 2012 Preview
The new building blocks of education
9-10 May 2012, Business Design Centre, Islington, London A
new event for 2012, BFE UK 2012 was borne out of combining the best of BSEC (Building Schools Exhibition and Conference) and Remodelling Education Spaces. As the only two-day event dedicated for the education built environment sector in the UK, BFE covers the shift of focus from new building to refurbishment in the education sector over the past 12 months following the changes in Government policy and funding.
The invited keynote speakers for Day One of the Building Future Education (BFE) UK Conference, are Chief Executive Designate of the Education Funding Agency (EFA) Peter Lauener and Chief Construction Adviser, Paul Morrell. The EFA chief will deliver his maiden speech on school building, outlining how the EFA plans to build on the work of PfS and deliver new schools in the next few years. Peter Lauener will be delivering his maiden speech as CEO of the Education Funding Agency. This is an Executive Agency of the Department for Education with responsibility for funding the education system for 3-19 year olds and managing the school and sixth form college estate. Lauener is set to outline the key characteristics of new school capital and programmes in the pipeline. BFE’s predecessor BSEC always had a close relationship with the schools delivery body Partnership for Schools (PfS). This will continue as PfS morphs into the EFA. Several senior EFA officers will be speaking at BFE, including Mike Coleman, Director of Programme Delivery at Partnerships’ for Schools, who says: “Building Future Education 2012 will be a great opportunity to hear from key people in the industry, and learn about major policies and future capital projects alongside their delivery. This year’s event includes the chance to hear about the launch of the Education Funding Agency, which will be responsible for the allocation and distribution of around £50 billion of revenue and capital funding each year, as well as the delivery of capital investment in schools.”
Professor Stephen Heppell returns
BFE will be chaired by world-renowned educationalist and technologist Professor Stephen Heppell. Professor Heppell has been involved in UBM’s education events since the launch of BSEC and his input into BFE will be as big as ever. The implementation of ICT and how it relates to school buildings has changed a lot in the past two years. Quite apart from constant technological advances, the axing of BECTA and separation of ICT procurement out of building contracts gives both schools clients and architects a lot to think about. Intelligent and smooth implementation of cutting-edge ICT in the classroom just got harder, due to less guidance and less project integration. Professor Heppell will showcase several exemplars of effective use of ICT in the classroom and how good building design makes this possible. A major change in content for BFE is the proper inclusion of college and university building projects for the first time. Funding for both FE & HE projects has been a major issue for several years and both sectors have had to adapt to a high level of volatility in funding and policy objectives. Certain institutions have adapted well, however, tapping into new and alternative sources of funding. The funding and project landscape will be explored by a panel involving university estates directors and design and build teams. Elsewhere, the biggest education project in the UK – the £500m redevelopment of UCL’s Bloomsbury campus – will be discussed by the project team, including architect Alex Lifschutz and UCL estates director Andrew Grainger.
In addition to the main conference, there are two free-to-attend feature areas on the exhibition floor running seminars – a Masterclass Theatre and a Green Learning Theatre. The Masterclass Theatre will touch on a wide range of subjects, especially helping teachers and suppliers gain a greater awareness of project information and good practice. A much-anticipated seminar will be presented by Building’s education dept, who will give visitors a sneak-peek at Building’s Education White Paper. The full version of this won’t be released until October, but the White Paper’s initial findings will be revealed. This includes vital and exclusive information gathered from key clients and project teams working in the sector.
Teachers should benefit from a seminar presented by expert fundraiser Rob Gill of The More Team. Gill will show how to tap into education charity grants and local business sponsorship to increase funding for newbuild, refurb and day to day maintenance. The education charity sector alone has £5Bn a year to distribute, much of which could be directed towards enhancing buildings.
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www.education-today.co.uk
The primary school sector is set for a mini-building boom due to demographic pressures. This will be more immediate and larger in scale than specialist school activity. A birth-rate surge of 90,000 over five years requires the equivalent of 360 average sized primary schools to be built every year. The specific challenges and opportunities created by this will be explored by an expert panel including Michal Cohen of Walters & Cohen and Paul Turpin of HLM.
The Green Learning Theatre is dedicated to sustainability, this is a continuation of what proved to be a very popular feature at last year’s BSEC event. Seminars in this theatre will touch on energy efficiency, on-site microgeneration, and use of sustainable materials. Keynote speeches will be given by the likes of Craig White of White Design, Jim McNally of Scott Wilson URS, and Sarah McCarrick of the BRE. The theatre will also feature a team presentation on the Atlas Schools project, a low carbon kit-of-parts that is set to be rolled out Europe-wide. This is a joint venture between the DfE, Skanska and Cambridge University.
Day Two of the Conference is headlined by Paul Morrell, Chief Government Construction Advisor. Morrell is responsible for overseeing many aspects of the government’s construction strategy. A major policy aim is to reduce the cost of public sector building projects by 20% during this parliament. This is an immense challenge and major chances to project management for school projects are being planned. Around half of all major building projects end up being overbudget and not finished on time. The extent of cost and time overruns has remained pretty constant in the past few years so industry interest in how efficiency savings will be achieved is very high.
Olympic buildings
By way of contrast, Sir Jonathon Porritt will be discussing sustainability and whether a low-carbon ethos can be maintained and improved during the age of value engineering. The government’s commitment to sustainable schools has wavered recently, floating the idea of scrapping BREEAM ratings. The debate around sustainability in schools is only set to intensify, and ex-chair of the DCSF’s Zero Carbon Schools Taskforce, Robin Nicholson CBE will lead a panel debate on the latest developments in DfE environmental policy. It’s impossible to ignore the Olympics this year, however issues around healthy lifestyles are important to school teachers every year. When asked by contractors, teachers often cite good sports facilities as a top priority. Schools are at the coalface of increasing grass-roots participation in sport and physical activity. Many Olympic stars take an active role in turning schoolkids onto sport and Steve Backley OBE will recount his sport experiences and how kids can be engaged via good facilities.
How education clients secure funding and plan projects is changing fast. Resourceful local authorities, colleges and universities are embarking on fully- realised asset management plans that unlock capital independent of central government funding. Also councils are changing the nature of their dialogue with developers to embed schools into masterplans in a way they haven’t done before. Free Schools are looking at assets in a new way – looking to convert large existing buildings into new schools. This new development landscape will be explored by a panel including Rachel Wolf of the New Schools Network and George Griffith of CBRE. This session will be chaired by the Editor of Property Week Giles Barrie.
April 2012
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