From the Teacher Support Network, www.teachersupport.info.

OUR REMARKS ON NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICE REPORT ABOUT BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE PROGRAMME
Standards must not be compromised for the sake of speed

Responding to today's National Audit Office report on the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, Teacher Support Network Chief Executive, Patrick Nash, said:

"Teachers and students need high quality school buildings urgently, but standards must not be compromised for the sake of speed. The Government is rightly learning lessons from the early stages of Building Schools for the Future - reforming elements of procurement accordingly - and it must continue to do this as the programme accelerates.

"PriceWaterhouseCooper, Teacher Support Network and the British Council for School Environments have all recommended that teachers are empowered to be more involved in BSF. We hope that further support will be given to enable teachers to be actively involved in the creation of their schools."

The publication 'Just another brick in the wall', released by Teacher Support Network and the British Council for School Environments last year, showed that there were significant barriers that prevented teachers from fully engaging in the BSF procurement process; meaning that their needs were not always met in new school buildings. Time pressures - resulting from the rapid pace of the procurement process and teacher workload - were found to be restricting the opportunity for teachers to contribute their expertise to the creation of their new working environment. PriceWaterhouseCooper's Second Annual Report on the Evaluation of the BSF programme also recommended greater teacher engagement.