Gateway Reviews

'The BSF Programme has adopted a bold approach to enable the transformation of learning across Barnsley, based upon an overarching commitment to meet the needs of children across the Borough

This was the conclusion reached by the Gateway Review team when they reported back on Wednesday 6 September following their three day visit. The report was extremely good, and acknowledged the exceptionally high level of support and buy-in that the programme has secured. It also recognised the open and transparent communication and the quality and performance of individuals within the programme team and elected members. The team concluded that the Barnsley BSF Programme is well placed to move forward.

The primary purpose of a 4Ps Gateway Review is to confirm that the business case is robust  that is, in principle it meets business need, is affordable, achievable, with appropriate options explored, and likely to achieve value for money. Following the review the team makes a number of recommendations based on its findings, which have a status marking of red, amber or green dependent on their priority for implementation.

It should be noted that Barnsleys report did not contain any red recommendations.

Positive Findings

• A clear and agreed understanding of the business goals and how these will be delivered.
• Committed to its vision of all schemes being new build.
• Robustly managed.
• Well resourced team with an appropriate skill mix.
• A prudent approach to developing the cost model.
• Attractive to the market.
• The project enjoys very strong and universal stakeholder support.
• Very good communication and stakeholder management.
• Stakeholders have a high level of confidence and are fully supportive of the project.
• Project is aligned with local and central government policies.
• Entirely consistent with the transformational agenda of the national BSF Programme.
• Very good communication, supported by a detailed plan.

Recommendations

The team made four recommendations  2 amber (to be carried out before the next review), and 2 green (that may offer benefit to the project)

• The project must resolve the phasing of the proposed schemes based upon an analysis of the deliverability of each scheme (Amber)
• The project must resolve the phasing of the proposed schemes based upon an analysis of the deliverability of each scheme (Amber)
• The roles and responsibilities of the boards should be refreshed and clarified. (Green)
• The programme should revisit the stakeholder mapping to ensure that all groups receive appropriate communication. (Green)