Civica signs multi-million schools contracts at Sheffield and Essex
Sheffield BSF contract agreement and Essex schools win strengthen market position

Civica plc, one of the UK’s leading providers of consulting, software and managed services for the public sector, has signed two significant contracts in its expanding education business, amounting to nearly £50 million over the next decade.

The company has reached contractual agreement with Sheffield City Council as strategic ICT partner for the city’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, as part of the Paradigm consortium led by Taylor Woodrow Construction. Civica anticipates that this contract will be worth approximately £45 million over all three phases of the 9-year programme. 

Sheffield’s BSF programme is part of the Local Education Partnership comprising Sheffield City Council, Partnerships for Schools and the Paradigm Consortium. Within the Partnership Civica will design and deliver a managed service supporting the ICT infrastructure and technology for BSF linked through a central data centre. Civica will also support the Partnership in determining the strategic ICT solution to help transform its secondary schools whilst delivering best value. Wave 1 covers nine schools divided into two phases for which the contract value is £11.25 million.

Civica has also been awarded a contract, under the Catalist framework, by Essex County Council worth £3.3 million over 3 years to provide the foundation for a shared learning environment for schools across the county. Civica has been selected by the County Council to develop and deploy an ICT infrastructure to enable pupils and staff across the county to share information and to collaborate in a secure environment, providing improved communications and access to ICT resources when and where needed.

Simon Downing, chief executive at Civica said, “We are delighted to have the opportunity to work in partnership with both the Sheffield LEP and with Essex County Council to help deliver their vision for schools. We believe both programmes have the potential to transform the educational environment for the benefit of students, teachers, schools and parents and we look forward to working together to provide a modern foundation for learning and collaboration.”

About Building Schools for the Future

BSF is the Government’s national schools investment programme, managed by Partnerships for Schools on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF, formerly the Department for Education and Skills). BSF is designed to transform education through improving all of England’s secondary school buildings and facilities over the next 10 to 15 years (subject to future public spending decisions).

About Paradigm

Paradigm is a consortium of Taylor Woodrow Construction, Taylor Woodrow Facilities Management, Civica plc, HLM and BDP Architects and HSBC Bank.

About Civica plc
Civica plc (www.civica.co.uk) is a market leader in software-based solutions that help public sector organisations to improve service delivery to their communities, with particular expertise in local government, housing, law enforcement, education and healthcare. Blending consulting, software and managed services, the group supplies more than 1,500 customers in the UK, Australia, Singapore and the USA, including approximately 89 per cent of the UK’s local authorities.