THE Government boss in charge of Building Schools for the Future has told parents: “The prize will be worth the pain.”

And Tim Byles said the prog-ramme was about changing mindsets not just buildings.

Mr Byles is chief executive of Partnership for Schools (PfS), the agency charged by the Government to deliver the £45billion BSF project.

On the week that 22 new or refurbished schools opened – including two in Burnley, one in Accrington and one in Darwen – Mr Byles said the scheme had a shaky start, but was making ‘real progress’. He praised Lancashire County Council for making some of the fastest progress in the country, despite the week’s delay in the opening of Pendle Vale College in Nelson which he put down to ‘unpredictable factors’.

Mr Byles, who took up the post in 2006, when PfS also took on responsibility to delivering the Academy programme under the BSF umbrella, said: “This is a major moment for BSF, with many new learning environments open for young people across the country.

“It’s been interesting to see how the schools have coped during the transition period.”

Lancashire County Council created seven secondaries and a sixth form in Burnley and Pendle under its £250million BSF scheme.

Buildings for Burnley Campus and Shuttleworth College in Padiham opened on Monday.

For the past two years they have been operating out of the old school sites, which was described as ‘extremely difficult’ by Shuttleworth staff and students.

“We knew there would be disruption,” said Mr Byles, “but we worked to minimise the adverse impact, and I believe the prize is worth the pain.

"Lancashire was in the first wave, and we have learnt a lot of lessons since then, and we will continue to learn.”

Plans are being drawn up for Blackburn and Darwen schools to be transformed under BSF between 2012 and 2015.

Mr Byles said: “BSF is about changing people’s mindsets, it’s not just about buildings.”