With many of their 9 schools still under Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts, Make conducted a high-level condition survey of all schools within the Multi Academy Trust and presented options for projects that would be eligible for funding through the Condition Improvement Fund.
This analysis took into consideration the obligations of the PFI contracts when presenting options. In the first year of working with The Newman Catholic Collegiate, 11 CIF applications were submitted with circa £1.5m secured. Make acted as Project Manager, Principal Designer and Contract Administrator for all Projects and, where required, submitted Permission to Access forms to the Local Authority where works were undertaken on PFI Schools.
Looking ahead to the next year of CIF Applications (2025-26), Make have been re-engaged and are now working with a further 2 schools within the Collegiate following delivery of the successful Fire Safety and Safeguarding Compliance Projects. The below focuses in on one of the projects delivered during Summer 2024.
The Project
St Wilfrid’s Catholic Primary School benefited from a successful fire safety and compliance CIF bid which involved the following works:
- Replacement of non-compliant internal fire doors with FD30s fire door sets.
- Replacement of non-compliant final exit doors with new.
- The installation of new fire exit door within a classroom.
- Installation of an L2 standard fire alarm system.
- Installation of emergency lighting upgrades throughout the school.
- Fire compartmentation and cavity barrier works.
The Challenge
The main challenge arose during the pre-contract meeting where it was communicated by the school, that a summer holiday club would take place in the school hall, right when the fire compliance works were planned to take place. As the fire compliance works were planned to take place throughout the whole school site, a programme was derived to ensure all works to the school hall were completed before the summer holiday club commenced.
The Outcome
Make and the Contractor worked together with the school to come to this solution to enable the works to go ahead as planned and also accommodate the summer club. The works were completed on time and ready for the school to re-occupy the site for the start of the academic year and provided the school with much more robust fire safety and compliance.
Testimonial
“Make Consulting successfully secured some much-needed Fire Compliance works for four of our schools. Make project managed the full contract of works, ensuring the projects kept within timescales and budgets. Communication with Grace and the contractors was excellent, with particular attention given to Health & Safety and site access. The progress reports were very detailed and informative.”
Karen Davies, Chief Operating Officer, The Newman Catholic Collegiate.
