Hull BSF schools

Robertson Capital Projects, as a partner in The Esteem Consortium, oversaw the delivery of this 17 school programme. Robertson Facilities Management will maintain six of the schools over a 25-year period.

This ambitious programme provided a city-wide approach to renewing the whole of the secondary education and special needs school estate. The aim was to transform learning across Hull, while embracing and enhancing the needs of individual learners, local communities and the city's social and economic infrastructure.

Robertson Capital Projects, as a partner in the The Esteem Consortium, joined Hull City Council and Partnerships for Schools (via Building Schools for the Future Investments) to form a Local Education Partnership (LEP) focused on driving forward a range of long-term, best-value partnering initiatives.

• 7 special needs schools
• 3 community schools
• 3 non-catchment voluntary aided schools
• 2 new academies
• 1 Pathfinder Trust school
• 1 co-located community secondary and special needs school
• An overhaul of the information and communications technology (ICT) facilities at all locations

The programme was delivered in three phases, with the initial construction beginning in March 2010.

Seven of the nine community secondary schools were new buildings with a programme of major remodelling for all the others. Each new school or "learning centre" was also designed to be central to its own community, incorporating flexible spaces for sport, theatre, adult learning classes and other events.

The first new school was opened by September 2011 with the final two completed in 2014.

We provide total FM for three secondary PFI schools: Winifred Holtby Academy, Andrew Marvell College and Kingswood Academy

Two special educational needs PFI schools benefit from total FM services: Oakfield Special School and Tweendykes Special School (which is incorporated within the Winifred Holtby Academy building).

Hard FM services are provided for one design & build secondary school: Archbishop Sentamu Academy.

We also provide a single Information and Communications Technology management service across the school estate.

In 2013/14 we achieved a reduction of 11.4% (6.28% normalised) through the installation of and improvement to pumps, electric motors, lighting and catering facilities including refrigeration and office equipment. This was against a target of 10% agreed in the Annual Energy Target element of our contract.

During 2015, we also reclaimed the climate change levy and VAT totalling around £70k for the Academy schools in this contract.

Additional areas of potential savings have been identified by proactively monitoring dataloggers installed on all utilities, which led to changes that reduced consumption over the summer break by around 16%.

There has been a 12.5% increase in GCSEs passed at a grade C or above since the new schools opened.

• BIFM 2015, highly commended – societal impact
• CSSA Awards – 2017 – CSR
• PFM Awards 2017 – Partners in CSR – Kingswood Academy, Hull

Project team

• Morgan Ashurst and Sewell Construction, (design & build contractor)
• Hull City Council
• BSFI LLP
• Morgan Sindall Investments
• Sewell Group (equity funding partners)
• The Co-operative Bank and Nationwide Bank (debt funding)