The 10 Year Education Estates Strategy. FM will need to respond quickly

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IWFM’s Head of Policy & Insight, Andrew Gladstone-Heighton, reacts to the government’s new strategy.

This Tuesday, the government has published its 10 year Education Estates Strategy. The purpose is to address the evidence that poor quality buildings have a negative impact on attainment, wellbeing and engagement for pupils, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Recent events have highlighted that underinvestment in the schools estate has led to expensive preventative maintenance, and an increasing backlog of issues that schools may not have the budget to address. The challenges of budgets not matching inflationary costs alongside responding to the risks that climate change presents only add to the challenges facing school estates.

The government plan is to roll out £38 billion in capital 2025-26 to 2029-30, with long-term funding confirmed through to 2034-35 for capital maintenance funding for schools and colleges and the School Rebuilding Programme. This is focused across three broad areas;

Manage your estate -  an initiative to allow schools to ‘proactively and effective manage’ their estates with guidance tools and data – which is very much the topic of the day here at IWFM, following the release of our recent Information Management guidance. And our guidance on the challenges and opportunities of Next generation maintenance will be a useful resource as FMs across the education estate engage with the new strategy.

Improve and renew the estate – this is the more ‘bricks and mortar’ response with strategic maintenance and renewal to improve the condition of the estate. This will link to Sustainability goals, clean energy as well as an opportunity to showcase the best in accessible design to support young people with SEND and other issues in school. If we can get this right as a sector, we can raise the bar in terms of what good looks like in education settings.

Build and rebuild the estate – this is the component that has cut through with the media, the focus here is on new buildings supported by best design practice guidance from the government. There is also confirmation that all schools not being rebuilt will be Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) free by 2029 – an ambitious goal.

Finally, as it is National Apprenticeship Week, there is a tie in, as the government has the ambition for 13,000 apprenticeship and T Level opportunities as part of this plan. Those involved will have to demonstrate that they are providing opportunities for apprentices and T Level students in school building projects, although only initially in a limited range of occupations.

This is a welcome move for schools, but we’ll need to move quickly as a sector to be able to meet the ambitious targets that the government has set.