Secondary education deadline is facing external pressures
STAFF shortages, supply chain problems in the construction industry, and Covid are putting increasing pressure on the 2024 time frame for completing a £101m. transformation of States secondary education.
A date of September 2024 had been set for the opening of the new post-16 campus at Les Ozouets, encompassing a new Sixth Form Centre, and the Guernsey Institute.
La Mare de Carteret High School is due to close by that time, with the remaining 11-16 schools at Les Varendes, Les Beaucamps and St Sampson’s.
At a Scrutiny public hearing yesterday, Education, Sport & Culture insisted it was still ‘aiming’ for the September 2024 deadline, but a sense of jangling nerves about the time frame was palpable.
The hearing started with ESC president Andrea Dudley-Owen acknowledging that Covid had put a strain on the project, along with recruitment gaps within her department, and labour shortages in the construction industry.
A lack of project managers within the States was highlighted as a particular challenge.
Next month there should be more clarity around the scheme when construction firms have to submit tenders, and that will reveal the capability of the local industry to deliver.
So far the project remains on budget, and ESC director of education Nick Hynes told the hearing that the biggest risk was not being able to meet the target date.
‘There’s various risks with regard to the time frame.
‘We’re working towards the 2024 time frame at the moment, and we’ll be clear about whether we’ll be able to achieve that in the next couple of months once we have the tenders back.
‘We're also making some really difficult decisions around cost, because we are very aware as a programme board that we’re spending taxpayers’ money and we need to ensure as far as possible that we’re delivering within the agreed spending that we’re allowed.’
If the September 2024 deadline is missed it would cause huge problems because it is unclear where the students at La Mare de Carteret would go and what plan B would entail.
Speaking after the hearing, ESC vice-president Bob Murray said the transition was critical.
‘So many people are affected by it, it’s thousands of students and their parents and their families. Once you start to move a deadline, the ramifications get to be quite intense.
‘It’s not just a matter of the costs of that, it’s actually a matter of the amount of people who are affected by missing a deadline, so it’s the last thing we want to do but we have to be realistic.’
