P$S is a key body for the government’s drive to change UK education. It is the body charged with delivering Building Schools for the Future and the construction element of the Academy school programme.
When Richard Bowker replaced David Goldstone as the P4S CEO, in September 2005, he was acclaimed as someone with the right connections and skills to ensure that P4S was able to deliver upon the government’s huge schools rebuilding program. Unfortunately, rather than being a steadying hand Mr Bowker’s tenure seems to have precipitated a near corporate collapse at P4S, with several key members of the senior management team leaving recently (including Education Director Brenda Bignold and Communications Director Caroline Wright).
Now the Chairman has had to announce that Mr Bowker is also leaving to become Chief Executive of National Express Group. Last December we wrote that Mr Bowker, within eight weeks of starting at P4S, was thought to have been one of the shortlisted candidates to replace Bob Kiley as London’s Transport Commissioner.
It now seems that hiring such a high-profile CEO has backfired, as the lure and salaries of the private sector were always going to be far more than a Non-Departmental Public Body such as P4S could afford. Indeed, Mr Bowker’s predecessor at National Express, Phil White’s salary package (including bonus and share options) is reported to have been in excess of £1m p.a.
So the key organisation leading the government’s £40bn investment programme in school rebuilding will now have to find its second CEO in nine months.
In the press release announcing Mr Bowker’s departure, P4S’s Chairman Michael Garbiner said, ‘I would like to thank Richard for his very significant contribution to P4S in gearing the organisation up to ensure the successful future delivery of the Building Schools for the Future programme’.
Fine words, but make no mistake, this organisation is in a serious crisis and its board, the DfES and Ministers will need to act swiftly and decisively to sort this out.
