CONTRACTED-OUT SCHOOL SERVICES

That this House is alarmed that schools included in the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme are required to sign up to long-term provision by private contractors of key school functions such as ICT services without being informed of the terms and conditions of such services; fears that many schools would be forced to abandon otherwise excellent service arrangements; believes this open-ended commitment is being demanded by companies who wish to enrich themselves beyond the necessary construction contracts required to rebuild schools; regrets that the Government is not resisting these add-on money-making schemes; and calls on school governing bodies to demand detailed costs and plans of any contracted-out services in order to make decisions related to the much-needed BSF programmes which are fair to schools, ratepayers and taxpayers.