Once the overall funding available is known, the project budget should be set. This should include all likely costs including:
• Cost of demolition, building and site works;
• Furniture and fittings;
• Professional fees, if appropriate.

The pie chart opposite shows a typical percentage breakdown for a school project. The professional consultant should develop a detailed cost plan, which should be maintained and kept under review throughout the project. Once the contract figure is agreed, the client should avoid asking for changes to design or the specification, as even small changes can substantially add to the cost of the project owing to the delay and disruption they can cause to the contractor. Although the cost plan should include a contingency sum for unforeseen circumstances, this is not intended to cover changes in the brief or the design.

3.6 BUILDING PROCUREMENT

There are various ways of undertaking building works at schools, but the four main methods are:
• 'Traditional' procurement;
• Design and Build;
• Public Private Partnerships;
• Partnering.

These are described below. A summary of the main pros and cons of each is shown in the table right.

'Traditional' procurement
Traditional procurement is still the most common form of procurement for small and medium size projects. The client, either the LEA or school, will normally commission consultants to prepare designs and specifications for works that are then constructed by a contractor engaged separately. The contractor is likely to engage sub-contractors for actual construction on site. Traditionally, the contractor offering the lowest bid for the work would be awarded the contract. Once the building contract is finished, the consultants and contractor have limited long-term responsibility for the subsequent performance of the building. Disadvantages of this method include: difficulty in utilising at the most appropriate time the full range of skills and experience of those involved; a focus on initial rather than lifetime costs; a potentially adversarial contractual relationship with greater risk of cost and time overruns.

Design and Build
There are many variants on design and build contracts and in many instances initial design work will be undertaken by the client before transfer to the

design and build contractor. Thereafter the contractor takes single-point responsibility for the design and construction. The contractor usually employs consultants for the design element and sub-contractors for the actual construction work. This form of procurement has particular application to fairly simple or standardised buildings, for example, sports halls.
It may be possible for the Design and Build option to be extended to cover maintenance and operation of the facility. This offers the opportunity for adopting innovative solutions that provide greater value for money when considering lifetime costs.

Public Private Partnerships
PPPs are increasingly becoming the main form of procurement for large projects in the schools sector. With PPP, one contractor provides and operates the assets over an extended period, usually 25-30 years. PPP is still a relatively new form of procurement and its application is developing rapidly. PPP at present typically involves the client specifying outputs as opposed to inputs. The benefits of PPP solutions include: greater risk transfer to the private sector partner; use of private sector management to reduce costs; more innovative solutions that offer the possibility of higher quality provision, wider social benefits from more ambitious schemes, and commercial utilisation that can cross-subsidise the project.
PPP procurement is more complex than traditional methods and therefore is less well suited to small building contracts under about £10 million in value. However, a number of smaller projects within a single LEA can be rolled into a single contract to make this method more feasible.