Children's tsar probes PPP impact on pupils

Professor Kathleen Marshall, the children's commissioner, will meet education experts next month to discuss a catalogue of allegations levelled against the private companies that are investing in schools throughout the country.

Under public-private partnerships, or PPPs, the responsibility for building and running schools rests with a consortium of businesses, while the local council agrees to pay a maintenance fee for a set number of years.

The Scottish Executive's 2.3 billion flagship school-building programme will result in 300 schools being rebuilt or refurbished by 2009, with most of it funded through PPP.

But in recent months, parents, teachers and construction experts have cast doubt on whether PPP is providing top-quality facilities for pupils.

Eleanor Coner, of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, last night accused private firms of cutting corners and putting profits before the welfare of children. "We have had pupils and teachers getting electric shocks ... and wires hanging out of the walls. It was very shoddy work and cheap materials used by the private contractors.

"Paramedics had to be called because one of the teachers went to switch on the light but was thrown across the room because of the electrics.

"On another occasion, a fire inspector came out to do a risk assessment and said the lighting was inadequate outside the school and it didn't pass the safety requirements," she said.

A survey of teachers in 2004 found that only 30 per cent believed PPP was value for money. It also found many projects were beset with problems - including overheating classrooms, leaking roofs and lack of storage space.

Last year, a survey by the building industry magazine Scottish Construction News found the vast majority of the country's architects and building professionals were unhappy with the quality of schools being produced under PPP.

Ronnie Smith, the general secretary of the main teachers' union, the EIS, said children were being let down because private companies were taking over schools and destroying the fabric of entire communities.

He said: "The concept of the school as the hub of the community has gone. The school ceases to be part of the community. The nature of the relationship has changed since PPP came in.

"We now have companies that seek to maximise their return ... and they will charge the community for the use of the school."

He went on: "We should be aiming to maximise school access for youngsters out of hours, not reducing it."

Supporters of PPPs say using the private sector reduces the short-term financial burden on local authorities. But critics say PPP schemes force councils to increase local taxes to try to clear their massive debts, creating a huge financial headache for thousands of householders already struggling to pay council tax bills.

Prof Marshall, who will meet representatives from the Scottish Parent Teacher Council this month, said: "There are a lot of questions to be answered about how public-private financing arrangements impact on community 'ownership' of facilities."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive defended the use of PPP and said it was helping to transform schools, with record levels of investment across the country.

'If a teacher wants a new lightbulb, they have to fill in a form'

THE voice on the end of the phone was slow and monotonous: "Your call is important to us, please continue to hold."

Eleanor Coner hated ringing the call centre, but she found herself doing so with increasing regularity as one of the parents on Dunbar Grammar School's PTA.

In the brave new world of the Public Private Partnership or PPP, she learned from bitter experience that private companies have a major role to play in our schools.

"I was never off the phone. I'd have to ring the call centre in Stirling to report a problem which could have been dealt with by the janny. Simple things like booking the school hall for a ceilidh turned into a fiasco. We quickly realised that this private company decided who could use the school and we had no control over it.

"Since PPP, we no longer have community schools that everyone can use. Those days are gone."

Ms Coner, who has three sons, was hit by a constant stream of red tape in her efforts to get the best for pupils and parents at Dunbar Grammar.

"It's absolutely crazy. If a teacher wants a lightbulb put up, they have to fill in a form," she said. "

Things are being run by a private company that doesn't even know where the school is."

A spokeswoman for Balfour Beatty, the construction company responsible, said there was always a "snagging" period. "We will resolve any problems," she said.

Forth Electrical Services, the building-services contractors, declined to comment.