About Our School Rebuilding Programme Commitment

At Help for Schools, we are committed to providing safe, modern, and conducive learning environments for students across our communities. Our School Rebuilding Program aims to revitalise ageing school infrastructure, ensuring that every child has access to high-quality educational facilities.

Our Approach to Project Management

Strategic Planning

We begin each project with a comprehensive strategic planning phase, assessing the needs of the school community, setting project goals, and establishing key milestones.

Stakeholder Engagement

We believe in the power of collaboration. Our project management approach emphasizes open communication and engagement with all stakeholders, including school administrators, teachers, parents, students, and local authorities.

Transparent Communication

Transparency is at the core of our project management philosophy. We provide regular updates on project progress, timelines, and budget allocations to keep stakeholders informed and involved every step of the way.

Risk Management

Identifying and mitigating risks is essential for project success. Our experienced project managers employ robust risk management strategies to anticipate and address potential challenges proactively.

Quality Assurance

We are committed to delivering high-quality outcomes that meet the needs and expectations of the school community. Rigorous quality assurance processes are integrated into every stage of the project lifecycle to ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations.

Help for Schools can offer the following services to schools that are planning to build new schools, onboarding new schools and expansion:  We provide the following:

  • Client-side project management dealing with the DfE, DfE Technical Advisors, Principal construction contractors, Architects, Councils and Trust/School stakeholder engagement.
  • Associated Planning Consent Agreements: Experience working on projects with Section 106 and Section 278 requirements.
  • Procurement of FF&E for loose and fixed via FAL payments
  • Designing of Science Laboratories, DT rooms etc
  • Guidance and implementation DfE facilities Standards Spec into final designs.
  • Guidance on implementation of Good Estate Management for Schools (GEMS)
  • Guidance of lifecycle models if required

Please do enquire about our services.

Testimonials

Hear from schools and trusts like yours that are benefiting from working with Help for Schools.

Help for Schools / Spencer Van der Werf has provided consistent high quality services to our Trust supporting our Capital Projects team deliver changes to our building infrastructure, improving the resources available and facilitating improved quality of teaching. He is able to interpret outline concepts, bring designs to the table, see through the building project management and quality check the final delivery. A great asset to secure your change plans.

Paul Atkinson – Director of Finance, Haberdashers’ Academies Trust South

Help for Schools is a reliable partner for complex projects, delivering solutions that are clear and effective. They excel in continuous improvement and proactive problem prevention in every interaction. I had the pleasure of working with Spencer on a project to convert shower rooms into a classroom, and I was impressed by his detailed project proposal and timely execution. He also identified many benefits, both tangible and intangible, from the project. Help for Schools will always be my first choice for project management.

Rachel Danso – Business Manager, Borough Academy

Help For Schools provided critical support to Day One Trust as we reconfigured our estates and facilities provision. They helped us understand our needs and manage the transition from an ineffective outsourced service to a professional in-house team. Their support included designing our team structure and guiding our recruitment, as well as establishing the systems and processes that team needed to work with. I’ve worked with Spencer and his team for many years on multiple projects and I’ve always found him to be professional, diligent, pragmatic and committed to students by securing high quality and value for money estates and facilities provision.

Fred Sharrock – CEO at Day One Trust

Help For Schools has played an integral role in overseeing and managing a £28 million project – the build of a new secondary school in central London. From the client perspective Spencer has managed effectively the multiple partners engaged in this project, from the comms to the project plan. His strengths lie in his attention to detail, his ability to find solutions to complex problems and his delivery of results.

Declan Jones – Principal at Borough Academy

I have known Simon for several years and he has always been a font of wisdom, advice and an intelligent steer to educational professionals; especially those looking to leadership. What has struck me most about his approach has been his willingness to engage with kindness without the need for reciprocity. Someone with true integrity.

Barry Cooper – Founding Principal at The Global College

Other Services

PFI Expiry

Contract expiry provides the opportunity for contracting authorities to reconsider what the future of its assets might look like

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Capital Projects Management

From refurbishment to building projects through SCA, DFC and CIF

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Procurement

Our services range from creation of specifications to mobilisation of all services

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