Free School Costs Escalate

I was interested to see that the costs of the free schools programme has escalated, according to a National Audit Office report.

One of Michael Gove's first decisions as Education Secretary was to abolish Building Schools for the Future.  This hit Brent badly as we had been promised funds to rebuild Alperton, Copland and Newman, as well as extra investment in Queens Park Community School.  The reason Mr Gove gave at the time was that Building Schools for the Future was overly bureaucratic and expensive.  The LGA suggested that scrapping the whole scheme would actually cost a number of Councils dear, but Michael decided that he knew best.

He has now apparently doubled the cost per school.  This is despite being built to lower standards in terms of space and building specifications (I wonder what the long term cost of that will be by the way).  Further costs are incurred as Michael is trying to open all these schools as quickly as possible, meaning sticking some of them into temporary premises.

The NAO also criticise Mr Gove for not collating evidence in a systematic manner to improve performance in the management of the programme.  Although the Education department ask the NAO to not that it feels it has struck "an appropriate balance" between pace and value for money, the NAO rather pointedly makes no such statement itself.

Along with the deliberate secrecy with which Michael Gove surrounds his choice of site and sponsors, it is hard to have confidence that the whole programme is well managed.