Dear colleague,
CAPITAL BUILDING WORKS ON ACADEMY SITES
Earlier this year a letter was sent to allacademies in Oxfordshire, setting out the Council’s policy regarding the procurement of basic need construction works on academy sites. The text is repeated belowas a reminder and for the benefit of academies established after March 2014 who would not have received the previous letter. The purpose of this letter is to reinforce this message but also to highlight the Education Funding Agency’s (EFA) newCondition Improvement Fund (CIF) which has replaced the Academies Capital Maintenance Fund (ACMF) and the Building Condition Improvement Fund (BCIF).
Condition Improvement Fund (CIF)
This fund is administered by the EFA for open academies and schools with academy orders signed on or before 1st November 2014 and sixth-form colleges. Bids from qualifying establishments have been invited from 20th November and the closing date is 19th December. It is intended that only one application round will be administered for the 2015/16 financial year. Further information can be found on the EFA website at
If your academy is considering submitting a condition bid to replace an existing building and/or for a project to expand the size of the academy you are strongly advised to contact Kevin Griffin, Service Manager School Organisation (, telephone; 01865 816457) to discuss the council’s need for pupil places in the area and any potential advantages to your academy of working with the council to join up funding streams to secure additional pupil places.
Previous Advice issued by OCC re Basic Need Funding in March 2014
As you know, post conversion to academy status academies access most of their funding through the EFA rather than Oxfordshire County Council (OCC).
There are two exceptions to this at present:
1)outstanding R & M works in the OCC’s published structural schools maintenance programme for the financial year of conversion; and
2)basic need projects for which the authority receives all funding for publicly maintained schools in Oxfordshire in order to commission additional pupil places where required.
The council wishes to work with academies in a constructive manner to recognise our joint responsibilities to young people in Oxfordshire and have been seeking to establish a formal policy on how such works should be procured in future. Indeed views were formally sought from a representational group of academies last September and considered as part of this process.
The resultant policy has now been approved by the authority and is set out below.
1.Delivery of building works on academy sites shall, where practicable, be direct delivery by the Academy under the terms of a grant funding agreement.
2.Where appropriate and accepted by the Academy the agreement shall integrate delivery of design / construction through the Carillion framework agreement.
3.In exceptional circumstances
a.Where design, procurement and delivery of works has entered the construction phase at the point of conversion to Academy status delivery shall be through direct delivery by the authority under the terms of a Works Licence Agreement or provisions in the Commercial Transfer Agreement with the Academy, via Carillion.
b.Where a specific request is received from the Academy funding may be transferred to enable direct delivery by the Academy under the terms of a grant funding agreement, via the academy’s own provider, e.g. DfE/EFA framework, local architect/contractor.
c.Where VAT issues arise, the procurement approach will be evaluated to establish the solution based upon a cost-benefit analysis.
The aim has been to adopt working practices in keeping with the spirit of academies whilst maintaining the option for academies to access professional support through the council’s chosen property consultant should they so wish. If and when officers are in discussion with you about capital schemes this will all be addressed as part of the planning process.
Yours faithfully,
Allyson Milward
Academies Manager
Direct line: 01865 816447
Email:
1