Luton Council signs £50m schools IT deal

Building Schools for the Future aims to transform IT use in schools

Luton Borough Council has become the latest local authority to sign a contract for a managed IT service to support the controversial Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

Luton has agreed a £270m deal with QED Wates, a consortium led by Wates Group, to refurbish 13 secondary schools, which includes a £50m, 10-year IT delivery service from supplier Civica.

The first schools will go live in June this year, with the project due to complete in 2011/12. Civica will operate a fully managed IT service, providing technical back-up for all the schools.

"The programme's new state-of-the-art learning environments and 21st century facilities, including IT, will be a fundamental tool to realise our vision of transforming the lives and opportunities for children and young people in Luton, " said Debbie Jones, the council's director of children learning.

BSF is the biggest ever schools infrastructure investment programme. Launched in 2004, and worth £45bn, it aims to transform education for 3.3 million 11 to 19 year-olds, rebuilding or renewing all English secondary schools in the next 15 years, providing premises designed to maximise effective use of IT.

BSF has been criticised by many schools' IT managers for imposing a one-size-fits-all approach to technology delivery that risks separating local IT staff from the teachers they support.

But Partnerships for Schools, the government agency behind BSF, told Computing last year that the programme will "transform the face of education".

IT spending in schools is forecast to hit £1.29bn per year by 2012 as the schools revamp gathers pace.