Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

BSF Glossary of Terms

Extra costs that are a consequence of particular site or location factors.

Accomodation Schedule
Document that outlines the number of rooms, their optimum or minimum sizes and any special internal requirements.

Adjacencies
The relationship of rooms or departments to each other within a building.

Breeam
British research establishment environmental assessment method (Breeam) - Method of assessing the performance of buildings in the following areas - management, health and wellbeing, pollution, transport, land, use of materials and water.

Brief (Outline or Detailed)
The outline brief is an initial description of the client's goals and requirements. The  detailed brief is a development of this with input from users and the design team.

Building Bulletin 98
DfES guidance document giving recommended floor areas and other standards for secondary school buildings according to range of pupil numbers, age range etc. BSF funding allocations are based on meeting BB98 standards for the number of students projected ten years ahead.

Building Contractor
The team that constructs the building.

Building Schools for the Future (BSF)
Government investment programme to rebuild or renew every secondary school in England over a 10-15 year period.

CABE Enabler
Enablers are built environment professionals, normally architects, who are allocated by CABE to provide client side advice to public sector projects.

Client Design Advisor (for a schools project)
Architect skilled in designing education buildings. They are responsible for advising the local authority and the school stakeholders on all design issues.

Community School
Previously known as a County school, the land and buildings are owned by the Council. Governors include LA representatives as well as parents, staff and co-opted community members. LA controls admissions and funds running through the delegated budget.

Competitive Dialogue
A procurement process using on-going negotiations to secure bids for complex contracts such as BSF.

Consortium/Consortia
In PPP/PFI the teams bidding for the contract are known as the consortia. They normally consist of funders, facilities management and construction companies. Design teams are subcontractors to the construction companies.

Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) formerly Department for Education and Skills
Government department responsible for education.

Design and Build
Procurement route where the building contractor is partly or entirely responsible for design development and for construction.

Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO)
Contract includes providing a building and operating a service in it for a definite period.

Design Champion
Senior member of client organisation who advocates good design.

Design Quality Indicator for Schools (DQIfS)
A process for evaluating the design quality of school buildings from the inception of the project through the design stages and once the building is complete.

Design Team
Responsible for designing the building. Usually led by the architects, the team also includes landscape architects, structural and service engineers and quantity surveyors/cost consultants.

Detailed Design
The latest stage in design development.

Expression of Interest (EOI)
Submissions by consortia who wish to be short listed to tender for a BSF project.

Facilities Management (FM)
Services such as life-cycle maintenance, cleaning, caretaking, catering provided under contract. FM is normally part of the PFI contract but may also be provided for existing buildings.

Foundation School (Trust School)
A school supported by an external Foundation or Trust (often a charity). The Foundation appoints some of the governors and controls admissions, but the school is still maintained by the local authority (delegated budget) and must follow the national curriculum. Any existing school can opt to acquire a foundation.

Furniture, Fixes and Equipment (FF&E)
All of the tables, chairs, technical items and machinery required to run the school.

Invitation to continue dialogue (ITCD)
Bidders will be short-listed to continue disalogue with the authority, based on their responses to the ITPD

Invitation to negotiate (ITN)
The document issued to short-listed bidders which details all the requirements for a project.

Invitation to participate in the dialogue (ITPD)
The document which invites participants who have pre-qualified to participate in a competitive dialogue.

Invitation to submit final tenders (ITSFT)
The document which invites remaining participants to submit final tenders once the dialogue phase has been concluded.

Local Education Partnership (LEP)
A delivery mechanism developed specifically for BSF which allows local authorities to procure all the requirements of their local BSF projects through a single long-term partnership with a private sector partner and PfS in a joint venture company called a Local Education Partnership.

Non Sample Schools
The projects that are designed and constructed following negotiations after the establishment of the LEP.

Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)
Publication where contract notices for procuring projects over a certain value must be advertised.

One School Pathfinders (OSP)
Single school project funded by the BSF capital, aimed at those local authorities not sue to start the full BSF programme until waves 10 to 15.

Options Appraisal
Examining alternative strategic design options at the beginning of a project by looking at the relative merits of new build, remodelling, refurbishment or a combination of these.

Outline Business Case (OBC)
Document which sets out in detail the scope, costs, affordability, risks, procurement route and timetable of the project.

Output Specification
A detailed description of the functions that the new accommodation must be capable of performing.

Partnerships for Schools (PfS)
Non-departmental public body set up to deliver BSF.

Pre-qualification Questionnaire (PQQ)
Sent to bidders expressing an interest in the project advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). It obtains information about potential bidders' capacity and ability to deliver the project.

Preferred Bidder
The consortia which win the bid and which will, subject to the satisfactory conclusion of negotiations, form part of the LEP.

Private Finance Initiative (PFI)
Procurement route that requires a private sector consortium to raise money to fund the project, carry out construction and manage the building, typically for 25 years.

Procurement
Process of selecting the contractor who offers the most favourable offer for the delivery of goods or services.

Programme Director
The person who has the responsibility for delivering the BSF programme.

Project Manager
The person who has responsibility for organising a project and coordinating the work of others to secure the achievement of the project objectives.

Project Review Group (PRG)
Treasury committee that must approve every PFI project before government funding support is committed.

Public Private Partnership Programme (4Ps)
Procurement  methods where the up-front costs of the project are met by the private sector and the public sector client pays back a 'mortgage' over an agreed period.

Pupil Referral Unit (PRU)
Special unit for pupils not attending school (e.g. excluded pupils, pregnant schoolgirls).

Sample Schools
In BSF a local authority will chose(usually) two or three schools as samples which the bidders must design in the competitive stage, and which become the first projects to be carried out by the LEP.

Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)
The company that will be established by the LEP to operate and manage individual tranches of the BSF project.

Strategy for Change (SfC)
The document which sets out 'what is to be done' and 'how it will be done', in terms of transforming education and the school estate simultaneously within the authority.

Technical Advisor
Coordinates the technical aspects of projects

Tender
A proposal with costs, to enter into a contract to undertake a defined piece of work.

Traditional Contract
Design and construction teams are chosen separately and engaged independently by the client. The design is worked up first by the design team and used by the contractors to price their construction cost.

Wave
Funding for BSF is being introduced in phases, or 'waves'. Each wave provides funding for approximately we local authorities. Each local authority will receive funding for approximately 10 schools in each wave.

Whole-life Cost
The full cost of a building over its life, usually taken as 25 to 30 years. This includes all capital, running, replacement and maintenance costs.