Creating value

A school’s highest investment after staffing is construction-related, whether building a new facility, refurbishing an existing one, or undertaking building maintenance. As with any investment, there is a desire to achieve a value-for-money outcome to maximise the return on investment. 

The BGA assess value in three dimensions:
  • Optimising educational outcomes
  • Achieving financial returns
  • Managing risks.

The BGA seeks to assist applicant schools in maximising the value of the grants they receive. By enhancing the capacity of school leaders, enabling them to effectively contribute to the design, construction, and activation of new or refurbished educational facilities.

Nine principles for creating value

1. Elevate purpose

This is the first key principle and evolves out of a school’s strategic plan. Purpose is the facility lifecycle development program’s north star. Consequently, purpose should be elevated and kept at the forefront of every key decision concerning the facility lifecycle development program. In doing so, purpose will be tested, refined, strengthened, better understood, and owned by more people. This in itself adds value.

Secondly, when tensions emerge during the delivery of the facility lifecycle development program (i.e., funding constraints, lifecycle staging), these will be more effectively resolved by elevating purpose

From a design and construction perspective, the strategic plan (or related Board strategic decision- making) should provide guidance on:

  • School educational philosophy and pedagogical approach. 
  • What new curriculum areas, if any, will be added to the school’s subject offering.
  • Student enrolment targets.
  • The type of commitment to the creation of safe and inclusive spaces, over and beyond that required by legislation.
  • The lifecycle cost approach that will be used during the delivery of the facility lifecycle development program. For example, there should be a process on how decisions will be made regarding the tension of reducing construction costs and the retention of building elements (i.e., sustainability elements) during any value management exercise. 
  • How facilities will be used (or not) to support the school’s engagement with the local community. 
  • What financial ratios must be upheld to ensure the school’s ongoing profitability, solvency, and sustainability.

2. Engage as a school leader

Well-designed educational facilities contribute to maximising educational outcomes. This is achieved when there is a strong overlap between a school’s education design (i.e., educational philosophy/ pedagogy) and the architectural design. Research indicates that this overlap is achieved when school leaders (including the Board) positively contribute to the design, delivery, and ongoing use of the facility lifecycle development program.

Consequently, it is important to resist the temptation to delegate all design, construction, and activation responsibilities to consultants. To do so is to lower the creation of value on the second-largest investment that a school has. To build the capacity of school leaders to make a positive contribution to the design, construction, and activation of a new or refurbished educational facility, Queensland Independent Schools Block Grant Authority (BGA) is in the process of developing the following guides/toolkits:

3. Time and money: Where is maximum impact obtained?

TIME MONEY L 01

The diagram above demonstrates that time and money spent at the start of a project has the most influence on the financial outcome of a project, illustrating value is created by the investment of time and funds at the start of the project.

Value is created as significant design changes can be made at the start of the project with little impact on the total project cost. In contrast, design changes later in the delivery of the project have a significant impact on cost. Therefore, the best time and money should be spent at the start of the project.

4. Plan well

Critical to the delivery of the facility lifecycle development program is the development of a site master plan. The strategic definition and project plan are informed by a school site master plan.

The strategic plan informs the master plan and the latter acts as the link between the strategic plan and the design of any new facility. As such, both plans must be living documents and reflective of the current strategic intent of the school. If it is not, the design of any new building should not be undertaken until they are.

A comprehensive master plan should include the following:

  • Strategic focus

    Reference to the school’s strategic plan, including enrolment target, position on new versus refurbished construction, and risk appetite.

  • Design principles

    Design principles that have guided the development of the site master plan and will guide the design of new and refurbished facilities noted in the master plan.

  • Site analysis

    Existing site audit (i.e., condition, usage assessments); town planning impacts, if any; environmental impacts, if any; analysis of people and traffic movement across the site; site infrastructure (i.e., location, condition, and capacity).

  • Future state

    Master plan design shown in development stages; identification of site infrastructure improvements that need to be made to support the delivery of the site master plan; cost plan (i.e., use of a Quantity Surveyor).

A project plan is the next critical document.
It draws together strategic intent and key elements related to the specific parts of the master plan. For example:

  • Project scope

    What spaces are needed and the inter-relationship of these spaces to one another. Note: This information should be informed by the site master plan.

  • Commitments

    What commitments will be upheld (i.e., environmental, safe and inclusive, community engagement).

  • Site infrastructure

    What site infrastructure (i.e., electrical, hydraulic, civil) needs to be undertaken to support the delivery of the facility.

  • Town planning considerations

    Town planning considerations, if any, that are triggered by the proposed project.

  • Project timeline

  • Project budget

It is important to note that these elements of the project plan need to be revisited at each stage of the BGA Design Quality and Delivery Process. 

 

The concept design is the third phase of planning and is the initial architectural design for a project.
It gives an understanding of the inter relationship of spaces as well as aesthetic considerations. It is at this stage of the project that iterations of the design take place based on input from:

  • Users

    It is vitally important that users (staff and students) have an opportunity to provide feedback on the design through its various iterations at this stage. If possible, the development of a prototype is very helpful. For example, mark out the proposed design of a space on a court, move furniture into it, and then teach from the space. Alternatively, convert what is no longer fit for purpose space to test a design approach.

  • Secondary consultants

    The role of these consultants is to provide preliminary technical input to support the development of the design concept.

  • Quantity surveyor

    The role of this consultant is to give an understanding of project cost. There is no use in continuing with a concept plan if its cost is significantly over budget.

5. Select a strong team

It is important to think about the design and construction team being an extension of the school’s team. The roles that generally make up the design and construction team are illustrated in the adjacent diagram.

STRONG TEAM L 03
  •  It is important that this team understands and can be aligned with your school’s mission, vision, and values. It is also important that they understand and can support the school’s strategic intent as it relates to educational delivery, access and safety, environmental aspirations, and community engagement. Consequently, time should be spent on these activities when selecting and then inducting consultants once engaged. This then means that the cheapest consultant fee might not mean the best consultant as they may not ultimately provide the greatest value.
  • Like any team that is aligned, all involved understand the role that each plays in achieving a project goal. They are interested in continuous improvement, so there is a focus on lessons learned, which leads to greater outcomes in the second and subsequent projects.
  • The construction contractor is included as they need to understand the mission, vision, values, and key strategic aspirations. If they do, it grants them the opportunity to suggest relevant value management options.
  • While a contractor often wins work via a tender process, contractor continuity often adds value. As such, a good contractor can position themselves for future work by communicating to the school and design team the construction challenges related to a specific site at the end of a project. This leads to the school and design team having a better understanding of what would be an appropriate cost of preliminaries related to future projects. This is important as a prospective contractor may go low on preliminaries not knowing site conditions, whereas the previous contractor has a higher price due to known and understood site conditions.

6. Allocate sufficient time

While the best time needs to be spent at the start of the project, sufficient time should be allocated to deliver the facility lifecycle development program and individual projects within it. For example:

  • Site master plans generally take six to 12 months to develop.
  • The planning phase of a project can take between six to 12 months. The length of time is less when an approval to develop is already in place.
  • Depending on the size and complexity of a project, it can take six to 15 months to construct.

7. Preparing to activate

Imagine the following situation:

A school has amazing teachers. These teachers are obtaining strong educational outcomes from teaching spaces that do not support modern pedagogy. The school follows a best practice approach to design spaces that have staff buy-in and support modern pedagogy. Consequently, there is much anticipation as staff and students watch the new building being built and then much excitement when staff and students move into the building once finished.

However, three months after moving into the building, teachers are not using the spaces in the manner that had been hoped. They have reorganised furniture to make the rooms look like the old teaching spaces. What has happened?

Research indicates that teachers who have mastery in an existing space need to be equipped and have ongoing support to have mastery in a new space. If they are not equipped, they resort back to the previous pedagogical practice and classroom set-up to gain mastery.

Consequently, time and money must be spent on equipping teachers to gain and sustain mastery in a new teaching space that supports modern pedagogical practice. If this does not happen, the educational return on the financial investment is significantly diminished.

8. Take the right maintenance approach 

Queensland University of Technology, together with other stakeholders, led an Australian Research Council project to identify innovative procurement theories to optimise ‘value’. One of the findings from the report was that Principals should be released from the responsibility of facility maintenance, and it be given to a person who has the knowledge and capability in this area.

 

DEPRECIATION L 02

Generally, when financial people think about building depreciation, they take a straight-line approach. However, the condition of a building typically does not reduce on a straight-line basis.

Rather, the condition typically follows a consumption-based curve where a building could be categorised as in ‘near new’ and then in ‘good’ condition for a significant period. It is then interesting to note that without intervention, the condition of a building can slip from being in ‘good’ to ‘very bad’ condition in a relatively short period.

This is why it is important to have specialists on the school team who can both maintain buildings and then make necessary capital interventions at the right time, so a building remains fit for purpose and costs related to these processes are minimised. As the image above demonstrates, a short delay in intervening can almost double the cost of bringing a building back to being near new.

Research currently being undertaken by John Somerset indicates that schools should be allocating a cash amount that is twice the amount of its building depreciation to ensure the schools have facilities that are fit for purpose (i.e., aligned to current pedagogical practice).

9. Evaluate the investment

A Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) enables school leaders to determine if an educational facility is working for staff and students, this should be done at key junctures during the occupancy of the building. For example, after the first year, the third year, and after 10 years to compare the information to the intended purpose of the building as outlined in the design definition phase of the project. Such an evaluation also considers furniture and fittings, noise, and light.

A holistic evaluation can be used to review a current master plan to see how effective it is in achieving the school’s strategic outcomes. Data from the POE can also be used to plan/inform the next facility project. By understanding the primary users’ needs this can inform future build designs and the alignment with the master plan

Finally POE is an effective tool to:

  • Gather student voice/opinion about how a facility is working for them, or not working.
  • Evaluate student satisfaction/ enjoyment and/or collaboration in the spaces.
  • Engage staff to evaluate spaces and provide an opportunity to design staff induction programs and create professional development to support pedagogical approaches to enable spaces to be maximally utilised - connecting learning space theory to teaching practices.

 

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