Client: School Infrastructure NSW
Location: Metro and regional NSW
Duration: 2018 – current
Project Value: $6Bn over 4 years (approx. published)
Roles: Major Program Management and Procurement Advisory Support
The Department of Education’s (DoE) asset base includes just over 2,200 schools, with an estimated value in the region of $25 Billion of built assets, including 45,000 class rooms in 27,500 buildings. This is a significant portfolio of property with a wide range of building stock in varying levels of service. This critical infrastructure requires careful prioritisation of investment to keep it fit for its intended purpose; providing our children with safe, welcoming, well-designed spaces that will create the right environment for them to grow, learn and develop.
School Infrastructure NSW (SINSW) was recently established unit within the DoE tasked with overseeing the planning, supply and maintenance of NSW schools, including implementation of all Major School Infrastructure Projects across the state. SINSW is responsible for managing $4.2 billion over the next four years for new schools and school upgrades, this represents an unprecedented capital delivery program.
Major Program Management and Procurement Advisory Support
MCE was engaged for its program management and procurement expertise to develop an efficient approach to undertake this major program of works. The program of works is the biggest education investment in NSW history – a huge $4.2 billion over the next four years for the development of new schools and major school upgrades, and a record breaking $747 million to tackle maintenance across 2,200 public schools within the state.
MCE undertook a market scan to confirm the market conditions, drivers and challenges, then developed a series of alternative delivery/procurement pathways with risk characterisation. This was used as a basis to create a project assessment framework developed in conjunction with SINSW through a series of strategic facilitation workshops.
MCE reviewed the current four year program of projects against the project assessment framework and outlined appropriate procurement/delivery pathways. MCE developed a roadmap to enable the SINSW Procurement Group to apply the strategic assessment framework then developed and deployed a training program for the SINSW’s implementation.
Key Successes and Outcomes
MCE developed a roadmap and Project Assessment Framework (PAF) to deliver investment strategies for a once-in-a-generation school buildings, major upgrades and maintenance program that will ensure every school-aged child has access to high quality education facilities at their local public school. Our continued advisory support will enable SINSW to efficiently deliver the very best school infrastructure so that the NSW public education system is one of the finest in the world.
The PAF evaluates the school infrastructure projects against ten characteristics that commonly define the suite of alternative delivery models. The PAF prompts detailed qualitative evaluation and assessment of a project’s characteristics, including opportunities for packaging, and through the heatmap output, provides guidance on the most suitable delivery pathways.
A high level strategic roadmap then sets out the overarching elements of a successful procurement framework, giving consideration to the current procurement capability within SINSW.
