Schools Property Flood Resilience: Regional Providers (Design and Build)

The Schools Water Strategy is an “invest to save” strategy aimed at reducing the risk of flooding in schools. This procurement is to enable the expansion of the current Property Flood Resilience (PFR) installations across the school estate, specifically targeting members of the Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) for schools in high-risk flood areas and schools that have suffered repeated flooding disruption.

This procurement has appointed two suppliers across 5 regions to design and build property flood resilience solutions across both grey and green (nature-based) categories.

The maximum contract value including optional extensions across all Lots is £100 million (excluding VAT). The initial 3 year contract term is valued at £57 million across all Lots, equating to roughly £11.4 million per Lot.

The DfE has awarded 5 regional contracts that will deliver PFR measures in specific schools (selected by the DfE based upon flood risk) in each region. The procurement was structured into five regional Lots to ensure equal coverage across England.

Each Lot is split into regions as follow:

• Lot 1: North West
• Lot 2: North East
• Lot 3: West Midlands and South (excluding London)
• Lot 4: London
• Lot 5: East Midlands and East of England

Each Lot will have a target to complete a minimum of 10 schools per year over the contract period; however, suppliers would be expected to work on more than 10 projects a year to achieve the targets, accounting for potential slippage. Each Lot is equal in the scope of works.

Bidders were able to apply for all five Lots but would only be awarded a maximum of three Lots. The procurement followed an Open Competitive Procedure, and the evaluation used a price-per-quality-point methodology.