Cambridge Education awarded contract to project manage school it organised consultation about

Lowestoft Coalition Against the Cuts have revealed that Cambridge Education, the company that organised the Beccles Free School consultation have been awarded the contract to Project Manage the opening of the school.

In a press statement they say:

LCAC has now found out that Cambridge Education, the company that did the "consultation" on the Beccles Free School project (including the farcical back of a newsagents event) and which wrote the report which lead to its approval, has been awarded a contract to project manage the setting up of the school.

Cambridge Education, which is in the business of setting up Free Schools, should never have been given the job of consulting on the desirability of the Beccles Free School. That it has now been rewarded with a contract to project manage the setting up of the school is a further insult to the people of Waveney and a further demonstration of the role of vested interests in the process. The DfE will not say how much Cambridge Education is being paid. 

Rob Cawley

This revelation follows news some months ago that Cambridge Education’s so-called “independent adjudicator” Rob Cawley was appointed as Principal of the Seckford Free Schools.

Blatant self-interest seems to be the norm in the brave new world of free schools. That said even the self-interested Cambridge Education struggled to make the Beccles consultation look good. They did however collude with the DfE to hide the consultation results until after the school was approved - and they were awarded a contract of unknown value to project manage its opening.