Education

Education has long been a large part of Sewell Group’s work. In 2009, the company celebrated the 10th anniversary of the opening of Victoria Dock Primary School, the first such facility to be built under the government’s private finance initiative (PFI). Please click here to read the views of Ed Balls MP, who at the time of this article was the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families. Mr Balls was extremely complimentary about Sewell Group’s work during his June 2009 visit.

PFI enables the public sector to contract with the private sector to provide quality services on a long-term basis, typically 25 years. Private sector infrastructure delivery and service management skills, incentivised by shifting the risk over to private sector partners has led to a high number of projects being delivered that might still be at the blueprint stage without the this kind of partnership arrangement. Following the success of Victoria Dock Primary School, Sewell Group went on to build three new schools in York, again as part of a Public, Private Partnership. These are: Hob Moor Children’s Centre in York with 530 pupils; St Barnabas School with 120 pupils; and St Oswald’s Primary School with 360 staff. Built to a very high specification, the company provides facilities management services with the aim of keeping each schools as pristine as the day they were built.

In late 2009, Sewell Group, along with partners Morgan Sindall and Robertsons, presented proposals for Hull’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. The consortium, known as Esteem, was announced as the preferred bidder in November 2009. An ambitious programme of work will transform Hull’s education estate. Esteem’s proposals aim to get Hull back to work whilst creating sustainable socio-economic benefits for people across the city, their children and future generations.