Department for Education and Skills (DfES) pulls the plug on a scheme to provide new and refurbished Church of England schools

The Diocesan Board of Education for the Church of England Diocese of Derby has expressed its anger and bewilderment that the Government has backed out of a scheme to provide funds for new and refurbished CofE schools.

For three years Dioceses across the Church of England have been working with the DfES to develop a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) to provide new and refurbished schools. In the East Midland Region the Dioceses of Derby, Leicester, Southwell and Peterborough have been working closely with schools and LEAs to prepare schemes that would benefit local communities. The DfES and the Church of England have funded this work and a company was set up to guide the development processes.

In the East Midlands five schemes were ready to ‘go live’ and a number of others were in preparation, so that all told, more than twenty schools would have benefited over the ten years that the programme was set to run. Officers from the Diocesan Boards of Education, members of the LEAs’ staff, school governors and school staff have worked very hard to bring this scheme to fruition. It was anticipated that the first agreements would be signed around the 22nd June and that the 'first wave' schools would have had their new buildings within two years.

On the 9th June the DfES announced to a meeting of Diocesan Directors of Education that they were withdrawing from the whole Church of England PFI Scheme. Their stated reason for the move was that they had instituted a Strategic Review of capital funding and that it would be 'inappropriate' to continue with the scheme for the time being.

Education Ministers are likely to face hard-line questioning to explain the abrupt u-turn.

As a gesture of goodwill the DfES has agreed to fund the first wave of schools, so Weston on Trent CE (Aided) Primary School in the Diocese of Derby, and a few schools in the other East Midland Dioceses, will have their new buildings, but all the other schools that had been working towards this will be left with nothing.

Canon David Edwards, Diocesan Director of Education for Derby Diocese said, "It is more than disappointing that so many schools have had their hopes of a new building dashed by this change of policy at the DfES, we are all extremely angry about this. Ministers have a lot to answer for and we are all looking for explanations from them and for some hope that the scheme may be re-activated in the future."

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. Capital developments in voluntary aided schools are funded separately by the DfES and the capital is not available for use in community and voluntary controlled schools, which receive their capital funding via the LEA.
2. Voluntary aided schools have a close relationship with their local parish church and with the Diocese. The church appoints the majority of the governing body and helps the governing bodies meet their 10% financial contribution to capital costs.

For more information contact Canon David Edwards, Diocesan Director of Education, on 01332 388660 or davidedwards@ddbe.org.