Wates Group has cemented its long association with the Department for Education (DfE), with the announcement of its appointment to 11 lots of the DfE’s new 2021 Construction Framework (CF21).
Under the four-year framework, Wates Construction will continue to deliver projects worth £12m and above in the North and South of England, and for the first time deliver Low Value Band (£500,000 to £6m) projects across the country, alongside Wates Smartspace.
Wates has been a key DfE supplier since 2011 and is their first contractor Strategic Supplier Relationship Management partner. Alongside the new framework Wates is currently delivering work via the DfE’s Modern Methods of Construction (MMC-1) framework, which was awarded in January 2020. These framework appointments put Wates at the heart of the Government’s strategy including opening new free schools, and their ambitious 10-year School Rebuilding Programme.
Today’s announcement builds on Wates’ heritage as one of the country’s most prolific builders of schools and educational facilities in the country, which dates back over 60 years.
School stats
- £2bn of Wates delivered schools in the last 15 years
- 120,000+ pupil places created/supported
- 244 schools completed, including 75 (£900m) via DfE frameworks
- £400m+ of school projects currently in preconstruction or on site
- £15.2m social value generated in 2020, including £7.6m of Social Enterprise spend
- 2,700 Apprenticeship weeks since 2017
Since Wates built its first school in 1961, it has been at the forefront of innovation in educational design, including its industry leading ‘Adapt’ solution, a component-based school kit which deploys offsite manufacture to provide a more efficient and sustainable method of construction. Now in its third iteration, Adapt has been used successfully to build 64 schools, saving waste and ensuring a consistent, high-quality approach.
The Group has also pioneered the development of Net Zero Carbon in Operation (NZCiO) schools, with four Adapt-Zero (NZCiO) schools currently under construction in the North of England via the MMC-1 framework, demonstrating readiness for the CF21 framework NZCiO requirement.
Steve Beechey, Group Public Sector Director, said: “We’re proud of our record as one of the country’s leading school builders and excited to be appointed across multiple CF21 lots enabling us to continue and expand upon our long-standing, and successful partnership with the DfE, one of our most important customers.
“Over the last ten years, our partnership has been built on the excellent relationships we’ve developed with the DfE, its technical advisers, and the schools themselves.
“Our ongoing commitment to delivering the best learning environments has seen us drive innovation in advanced standardisation, delivering the greatest social value and now the smallest environmental footprint – via the NZCiO environments, where our next generation of young people will learn.”
