Trowers & Hamlins

A Trowers & Hamlins team led by newly appointed Partner and PPP specialist Karen Andrews has been appointed to advise Blackpool Council on its £143 million Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project having come through a demanding competitive tender process.

Blackpool Council is taking forward its BSF project as part of Wave 5 of the government’s £45 billion Building Schools for the Future programme which will see the modernisation of the entire secondary schools estate in England by 2015.

The Blackpool BSF project will cover all of the eight secondary schools plus 3 special schools and a PRU in the Borough and is intended to replace and remodel the current life expired schools stock, much of which dates from the 1950s, with new purpose built education facilities fit for the 21st century. The first new school delivered under the Blackpool BSF project is scheduled to open in time for the beginning of the new school term in September 2012.

Among the innovative features of the Blackpool BSF project are plans for the delivery of the country’s first “studio school”, a new concept in secondary education, designed to deliver vocational training to students in the 14-19 age group. The scheme is also unique in the fact that all of the schools involved will have Trust status. The Council hopes that this will allow new governance arrangements to be trialled, thus allowing schools to cooperate better in delivering education services which meet the evolving needs of the area’s young people.

Karen Andrews and her team will advise on all legal aspects of the project and will be supported by a firm wide team of experts in Building Schools for the Future, construction, property, project finance employment and tax who will provide Blackpool Council with all of the advice it will require to bring its ambitious programme to a successful conclusion. The team chosen to work on the Blackpool BSF project will be drawn from Trowers & Hamlins’ Manchester and London offices.

Commenting on this important new appointment for the firm Partner Karen Andrews said: “We are delighted to have been appointed to advise Blackpool Council on its Building Schools for the Future project. This appointment underlines our continued commitment to providing our public sector clients, particularly those involved in the procurement of major infrastructure projects such as Building Schools for the Future, with the finest available legal advice with a national service from our offices in Manchester, London and Exeter.”

Karen Andrews joined Trowers & Hamlins in April 2008 from Nabarro’s Sheffield office where she led their Building Schools for the Future team. Karen is one of the UK’s leading projects lawyers having been named as one of “The Lawyer” magazine’s “Hot 100” leading legal professionals in 2006. She is an expert in all matters relating to Building Schools for the Future, PFI and Public Private Partnership work.

Karen will play a major role in the continued growth of Trowers & Hamlins’ Manchester office spearheading the growth of Trowers & Hamlins’ Public Sector Commercial practice in the North of England.

Trowers & Hamlins is accredited by the Partnerships for Schools legal services panel and is advising a number of local authority clients including Southwark Council, the London Boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Tower Hamlets and Harrow, Essex County Council and Wolverhampton City Council on their Building Schools for the Future and Academies projects. The firm is also advising school Governing Bodies, private sector contractors and clients from the not for profit sector on their interests in ongoing BSF and Academy projects.

Issued by Mattison Public Relations

21 May 2008

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Press enquiries:

Karen Andrews
Partner
Trowers & Hamlins
Tel: 0161 211 0000

Nick Mattison or Victoria Lock
Mattison Public Relations
Tel: 020 7645 3636