Regional frameworks may be set up for maintenance and facilities management work in schools, the head of the government鈥檚 school delivery agency has said

In a positive move for small firms, Tim Byles, chief executive of Partnerships for Schools (PfS), said he was looking at introducing regional frameworks for maintenance, FM and small improvement works.

He said: 鈥淲e want to explore using local, small contractors to do things quickly. We will be looking at more frameworks, especially local ones as we look at maintenance more.鈥�

Although the scope of PfS鈥� remit under a future government remains uncertain, the principle of getting more local firms involved in small-scale works is supported by both main political parties. There is also expected to be a growing shift towards refurbishment work in the later stages of the school renewal programme.

Meanwhile, senior education sources have suggested that the government鈥檚 school building programme would be protected from the impact of spending cuts for several months.

One said this week that the impact of any cuts after the election 鈥渨on鈥檛 be immediate鈥�, owing to the long gestation period of schools projects.

He said projects that had reached preferred bidder or Official Journal stage would be difficult to stop: 鈥淚t鈥檚 unlikely, because of the risk of legal challenge from the bidders.鈥�

However, he added: 鈥淧rojects that are pre-Official Journal are easier to slow down. Nobody is saying there鈥檚 a mind to do that, but it鈥檚 entirely possible.鈥�

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